Priority Zero: Some Things are More Equal than Others
Summary
In this talk, the speaker draws on his extensive executive coaching and product leadership experience, including his time at All Clear ID, to highlight prioritization as a fundamental tool for innovation and effective decision-making in complex environments. He introduces the concept of prioritizing across horizon one (day-to-day business), horizon two (foundation for future growth), and horizon three (long-term innovation), explaining how balancing these enables organizations to scale without losing sight of transformational opportunities. He shares how he created a visual, iterative prioritization framework at All Clear ID by engaging stakeholders like Maria and Dennis Allison to cluster priorities into technical debt, feature development, process improvements, and innovation. Using this approach, the company secured crucial investment to rebuild organizational capabilities and scale sustainably. The speaker also offers practical advice for managing emotion at work and stresses that clear, optimistic communication and stakeholder alignment are vital for success.
Key Insights
-
•
Prioritization drives everything in innovation and organizational success, guiding what gets attention and resources.
-
•
Innovations vary from big eye changes like elevators to small eye improvements like nail clippers, each with systemic impact.
-
•
Viewing problems as design challenges helps tailor strategies according to their scope and solvability.
-
•
Balancing urgent and important tasks with important but not urgent long-term investments is critical.
-
•
The horizon model (1,2,3) helps organizations separate current operations, foundation building, and future innovation.
-
•
Iterative stakeholder engagement is essential to build a shared prioritization framework that reflects multiple perspectives.
-
•
Breaking priorities into clusters such as technical debt, defects, new features, and process automation clarifies focus areas.
-
•
Prioritization frameworks enable transparent reasoning behind choices, facilitating alignment and investment support.
-
•
Organizational scaling requires removing barriers and investing across horizons simultaneously to sustain growth.
-
•
Leadership attitude—being blunt yet optimistic—drives confidence and followership during transformational change.
Notable Quotes
"If we could do everything that was important, we would just do it."
"Priorities don't necessarily need to be in a list but even unspoken priorities drive the work that's getting done."
"I’ve become a subversive designer because I’m now considered a product leader using prioritization at the organizational level."
"The urgent and important stuff competes with the important but not urgent, and we have to sort that out."
"We talked to fifty people and started to see how the world was shaping up in terms of what we needed to do."
"You have to choose what you’re going to do in order to win—and implicitly what you’re not going to do."
"Horizon one investments are about running the business today, horizon two about reinforcing growth, horizon three about long-term bets."
"People will not sabotage what’s going on if they feel like they’ve been part of the process."
"Be blunt with people but be optimistic—your attitude is going to be the thing that drives success."
"We got the board to write a check bigger than they’d ever spent because we had clarity on priorities and investment needs."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"There was a lot of communication needed around roles, especially since our software developer was external and not always involved in day-to-day decisions."
Dr Chloe SharpUsing Evidence and Collaboration for Setting and Defending Priorities
November 29, 2023
"Creativity fuels design, design fuels innovation."
Dr. Karl JeffriesThe Science of Creativity for DesignOps
January 8, 2024
"If implemented correctly, AI could have impressively positive impacts on inclusion and accessibility."
Amber KnablEmpowering innovation: The critical role of inclusive product development in the AI era
June 4, 2024
"Work is your real life. Friendships make the office a safe, happy, fun place to be."
Dorelle RabinowitzThe Magic Word is Trust
June 15, 2018
"In a fight, there’s a winner and a loser. But for a product to be successful, it has to work both for users and business."
Dan WillisEnterprise Storytelling Sessions
June 3, 2019
"Helping your team take risks and stretch is critical even though design ops tend to be risk averse by nature."
Courtney KaplanTaking it to the next level: Career paths in DesignOps
November 8, 2018
"The real shift wasn’t speed, it was also trust."
Bethany BrownRewiring operations with service design and AI
November 20, 2025
"There is a world of difference between what a participant says and what they actually do, and AI misses that completely."
Laura KleinHuman vs. machine: Testing AI’s ability to synthesize and analyze research
March 11, 2026
"ChatGPT has a big advantage in being thorough and comprehensive, especially compared to myself."
Weidan LiQualitative synthesis with ChatGPT: Better or worse than human intelligence?
June 4, 2024
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
Why is service design lacking in the solar industry, and how does that affect solar system adoption?
How does the concept of fluid versus crystallized intelligence affect career transitions in tech?
What strategies help designers manage executives who overestimate AI’s ability to replace skilled work?