Prioritizing Amidst resource constraints

In an ideal world, product leaders have ample time, people, and budget to pursue every promising idea. But in reality — especially in today’s environment of tighter markets, leaner teams, and ongoing uncertainty — resource constraints are the rule, not the exception.

Whether you’re navigating a hiring freeze, a budget cut, or simply an overcommitted roadmap, the challenge is the same: how do you focus your limited resources on the work that matters most?

As a former product leader, and now coach to product leaders, I’ve seen that the difference between good and great product leadership often comes down to how well you prioritize under pressure. Here are five strategies to help you lead with clarity and confidence when resources are tight.

1. Shift from “What can we build?” to “What must we achieve?”

When resources are abundant, teams often think in terms of output: what features, products, or experiments can we deliver? But when resources tighten, it’s time to shift the question: What are the fewest things we can do to drive the outcomes that matter most?

Start by aligning with your executive stakeholders on the 1–3 business outcomes that are most critical this quarter or half-year: revenue retention, NRR, user growth, cost savings, etc.

Then ask: which initiatives are truly essential to move those needles?

This clarity of purpose helps you filter the "nice-to-haves" from the non-negotiables.

2. Ruthlessly Evaluate Trade-offs Using a Tiered Prioritization Framework

Not all initiatives are created equal—and not all deserve attention when your capacity is limited. Tools like RICE, MoSCoW, or a simple Impact vs. Effort matrix can help; but the key is not just to score ideas, but to have real conversations about what you’re willing to pause, kill, or defer.

I often recommend leaders use a three-tiered system:

• Tier 1: Must-do — Directly tied to business-critical goals or committed deliverables.

• Tier 2: Should-do — Valuable, but only pursued if Tier 1 is fully resourced.

• Tier 3: Nice-to-have — On hold or removed from the roadmap.

By making the tiers visible and explicit, you avoid unspoken assumptions and reduce thrash when new requests come in.

Note: This assumes you have a collaborative, aligned leadership team & stakeholders. As organizations grow larger and have multiple lines of business that rely on core or common products, this gets more difficult. And if your leadership team is dysfunctional, that makes this so much harder. There are several other blog posts I will share that delve into this a little more in the future.

3. Make Constraints Your Strategic Advantage

It’s easy to see resource constraints as a blocker. But the most strategic product leaders use them as a forcing function for clarity and innovation.

Tight timelines or limited bandwidth can spark sharper focus, creative problem-solving, and a healthy reevaluation of bloated processes.

Ask your team:

• If we could only do one thing this quarter, what would it be?

• What could we remove or simplify to free up capacity?

• Where are we duplicating effort or chasing marginal wins?

In short: treat constraints not just as a reality, but as a design challenge.

Note: I’ve occasionally set arbitrary deadlines for teams to force this thinking. As they started getting stuck in analysis-paralysis, or scope kept creeping larger and larger, I found that creating scarcity (mostly of time, sometimes of funding) was a helpful way to drive clarity and decisions.

4. Communicate Hard Decisions with Transparency and Empathy

When you deprioritize a feature request, kill an initiative, or reallocate a team, people will be disappointed —especially if they've already invested time or energy.

Good product leaders make the why clear:

“Given our focus on customer retention, we’re pausing the onboarding redesign. I know this is frustrating, but we’ll revisit once we see results from our core retention work.”

Transparency builds trust. Empathy builds resilience. When people understand how decisions are made, they’re more likely to stay engaged, even if their favorite idea doesn’t make the cut.

5. Don’t Try to Do It Alone—Prioritize with Your Team

Too often, product leaders fall into the trap of trying to protect their team by making all the hard decisions themselves.

Instead, bring your team into the prioritization process.

This doesn’t mean everything becomes democratic, but it does mean:

• Creating space for engineers, designers, and product managers to surface ideas and risks.

• Aligning around clear prioritization criteria.

• Making trade-offs visible, not hidden behind closed doors.

When your team understands the why and how behind prioritization, they become more accountable, more adaptable, and more resilient.

Closing Thought: Leadership in Scarcity is Still Leadership

It’s easy to feel reactive or defeated when you’re under-resourced. But great product leaders show up with clarity, courage, and conviction even in times of constraint.

In fact, your ability to lead through resource limitations may say more about your leadership than anything else. Use it as an opportunity to simplify, focus, and rally your teams around what really matters.

And remember: constraints don’t kill great products—confusion and indecision do.