RICE Scoring

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RICE is a quantitative scoring method for comparing backlog items, introduced by Intercom’s product team. Instead of arguing that “this feature matters more,” you score each idea with four numbers and get a single rank.

The formula

RICE score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) ÷ Effort

• Reach: how many users will be affected in a given period (for example, a quarter)?
• Impact: if it reaches them, how much does it move the product goal? Often scored on a 0.25–3 scale.
• Confidence: how sure are you about Reach and Impact? A percentage (50%, 80%, 100%).
• Effort: how many person-months of design and engineering will it take?

Higher scores rank higher. Low confidence shrinks the score on purpose so large guesses without evidence do not float to the top.

When to use it

When the backlog is crowded and every stakeholder has a different “number one.” RICE turns the debate into numbers you can revisit. For tiny growth experiments, the lighter ICE score is usually enough.

Further reading: 7 feature-prioritization methods and Intercom’s original RICE article.