Building a Shared Language of Cost | John's Tips 2024W44
Get buy-in for your team’s prioritisation approach by building a shared language of cost. Use this workshop to align decisions across departments for smarter, more impactful outcomes.
As I spend more time growing into my current role, I’ve been digging deeper into how different teams and companies approach prioritisation.
It’s increasingly clear to me that every company, and even every department within their company, have their own unique challenges and ways of measuring what’s important or what needs to be built next.
While introducing prioritisation frameworks to my team, I’ve found myself seeking advice from more experienced product leaders (specifically on Lenny’s Slack Community).
And what I heard over and over was the same as I’ve heard in the past:
“Just bring it back to the money”
At first glance, this sounds like good advice.
And it is, I think?
After all, many business decisions ultimately come down to profitability, right?
But, the more I thought about it, the more I realised that “bring it back to the money” doesn’t capture the whole picture.
That answer is nowhere near as nuanced as it should be, for a topic already as divisive and nuanced as prioritisation.
The truth is, cost isn’t just about money or the bottom line.
It’s about the relative impact of a decision on different parts of the organisation, and the cost of that impact in the eyes of each stakeholder.
Why am I talking about this?
I’m getting to it!
I’ve worked on platform teams for the last 3 years and frequently noticed that the problems we were trying to solve for all our different stakeholders had different impacts along with their different underlying costs.
The challenge here is often telling one stakeholder that their problem has been prioritised below a different problem from another stakeholder.
In essence, you’re saying:
“Your problem isn’t as big as theirs”
This can be especially difficult when the actual cost of not doing the work is a significant burden for that stakeholder, and they also lack the context to compare the cost of their issue to others.
This lack of shared understanding might rightly make them upset, or it might simply make them try to escalate their way around the prioritisation method.
If stakeholders find ways to circumvent the process, it can undermine trust in the prioritisation framework, making alignment even harder.
Keeping everyone on board with a framework is tough enough as it is, without this additional complexity.
And as the title says, I feel like something crucial is missing here: a shared language of cost.
Every department speaks a different language of cost, and if we only focus on “money” in its narrowest sense, we miss out on important nuances.
Here are some examples of costs across different stakeholder types, which I’ll put in quotes (and present tense), so you can use these in the workshop further down:
For Engineering, it might be the cost of accumulating tech debt. Every time we push back on addressing outdated code or shortcuts in the architecture, we’re adding to a burden that will slow down future development.
For Legal and Compliance, it could be the cost of regulatory risks. Ignoring GDPR or PCI compliance for too long could mean hefty fines and reputational damage. However, from another team’s perspective, these risks may seem distant - until they aren’t.
For Customer Support, it might be the cost of unresolved customer pain points. Every day that certain features go unaddressed, we might be losing customer trust or, worse, seeing churn increase. While this cost may not show up directly on a balance sheet, its impact is real and lasting.
For Operations, it’s often the cost of inefficient processes. Tasks that could be automated are eating up hours every week, costing time and morale.
For Sales and Marketing, it’s frequently the cost of missed opportunities. When our product doesn’t address a competitive feature, or we’re delayed in responding to market demands, we lose revenue potential and, sometimes, customers.
By understanding how each department views cost, you can create a more holistic approach to prioritisation.
This brings us to the crux of the challenge: How do we align these perspectives so that everyone’s understanding of cost is unified?
This is where a workshop comes into play - to help teams build a shared understanding of cost across departments, leading to better alignment, smarter decisions, and ultimately, better outcomes for the company.
Building a Shared Language of Cost Workshop
Above is my own Miro Frame with my workshop laid out. I have two text boxes in the top left corner. You can copy anything under the line below into the topmost text box, and the quoted examples from above into the bottom text box.
Note: You should have your own outcomes already identified as a company/division, but if you don’t, I have another blog here explaining how you can run that ceremony. I use a similar design for both these workshops, and it works for both the free and paid version of Miro.
If you don’t use outcomes yet, you should get on it! I explain all about that here
Anyways, on to the workshop.
The workshop’s aim is to get team members from different teams to share what “cost” means to you so that we can all align on a unified language for prioritisation.
1. Introduction (5 minutes)
Introduce the purpose of the workshop: to build a shared understanding of cost from each team’s perspective.
Emphasize how having a shared language for cost will allow us to balance short-term fixes with long-term sustainability. It will also enable better collaboration between departments by ensuring that prioritisation discussions account for all perspectives.
Explain what makes a strong cost definition (aligned with team objectives, measurable impact, customer-centric, etc.).
Talk about these instructions to guide the session.
2. Sticky Note Brainstorming (5 minutes)
Each team member writes down 1-3 “costs” as seen by their department on the sticky notes.
Keep it Concise: keep descriptions clear and specific (e.g., “Tech debt slowing down new feature releases”).
Team members should think of costs beyond immediate financial impacts -consider operational, compliance, and opportunity costs as well.
3. Presentation (5 - 10 minutes)
Each team member presents their sticky notes to the group, explaining their department’s perspective on costs (about 30 seconds each).
Place sticky notes in a designated area on the Miro board as they’re presented for everyone to see and reference.
3. Grouping & Refinement (10 minutes)
Work together to identify and group similar cost concepts in the specific grouping area.
Merge overlapping ideas and reduce redundancy, aiming for a refined list of unique cost types.
Miro AI can be useful here to “create a sticky that contains the essence of each of the selected stickys” - use the quoted text as a prompt
4. Dot Voting (5 minutes)
Team members will drag and drop their dots to vote on the costs they believe are most impactful to address.
Team members should consider the cross-departmental impact and strategic relevance of each cost when voting.
If you end up with 15+ different costs after refinement, use 4 dots each.
5. Big Picture Discussion (15 minutes)
First, explain the outcomes/pillars on the board so that people understand what they mean.
Identify the costs with the most votes as priority costs and discuss why these emerged as critical. Team members are encouraged to speak up if this cost impacts their role, or if they disagree with the priority.
As you finish discussing each priority dot, move it to the outcome that makes the most sense.
Ensure a shared understanding and buy-in on these priorities. This is the foundation of your shared language of cost.
Confirm these as prioritised costs that will help guide the team’s decision-making moving forward when working on opportunities that are prioritised towards each of those outcomes.
At the end of the workshop, you’ll hopefully have more clear, shared understanding of what “cost” means across your company.
This alignment will help lead to more transparent decision-making, reduce friction between teams, and enable prioritisation based on real impact, not just financial metrics.
My aim for this blog is to broaden your view beyond narrow definitions of “money,” so you can make better, more holistic decisions that serve both your team and company goals.
Recognising the full spectrum of costs gives you the best chance to align priorities and drive meaningful progress for your business.
I have some other Product Operations content here if you found this useful.
For my past tips check out my past posts on Substack or check out the hashtag #JohnsTipOfTheWeek on LinkedIn.
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