MoSCoW: Sorting what matters most

To help your team make clear, collective decisions about what’s truly essential, what’s nice to have, and what’s best left for later.

Number of participants: Any

Time needed: 1-2hrs

Materials: Pens, paper or online collaboration tool

Goal

To create focus and realism about what can actually be delivered within your current time frame or constraints.

Step 1: Gather your ideas

Start by listing all the features, tasks or ideas you’d love to include in your next phase (for example, a sprint, workshop series or project milestone).

Step 2: Build your Matrix

Draw (or create digitally) a simple diagram with four boxes labelled:

• Must Have

• Should Have

• Could Have

• Would Love (But Not Now)

Step 3: Sort together

As a team, place each idea in one of the four boxes.

Here’s what they mean:

• Must Have: Absolutely critical for success — without it, the project fails.

• Should Have: Important and valuable, but can be delivered in another way or in the next phase.

• Could Have: Nice extras that improve the experience, but aren’t essential.

• Would Love (But Not Now): Great ideas that are currently out of reach (too complex, expensive, or not feasible right now).

Step 4: Sense Check

Be honest. What really matters? What’s realistic within your current time, resources and energy?

Step 5: Make it actionable

Turn your “Must” and “Should” items into clear tasks and assign owners or deadlines.

Facilitator Tip 💡

This activity can be run with an online whiteboard tool though can also be run with the facilitator screen sharing a Trello board, Google Doc or other task management tool.