Supercell avoids emotional decision-making by being radically transparent with data. A daily email with key metrics for every game is sent to the entire company. This ensures everyone understands the performance criteria and accepts the rigorous, data-driven decisions to kill projects that don't meet specific thresholds.

To foster innovation, Kanji's marketing team holds a "Shark Tank Day." Team members pitch creative ideas to a panel of "sharks" representing their buyer persona. This gamified process surfaces proactive strategies (like an AI-powered "roast your tech stack" tool) and secures cross-functional buy-in.

If a team is constantly struggling with prioritization, the root cause isn't poor task management; it's the absence of a clear, unifying strategy. A strong, insight-based strategy makes prioritization implicit, naturally aligning the organization and reducing distractions.

Employees often reserve their best strategic thinking for complex hobbies. By intentionally designing the work environment with clear rules, goals, and compelling narratives—like a well-designed game—leaders can unlock this latent strategic talent and make work more engaging.

Instead of complex prioritization frameworks like RICE, designers can use a more intuitive model based on Value, Cost, and Risk. This mirrors the mental calculation humans use for everyday decisions, allowing for a more holistic and natural conversation about project trade-offs.

Organizations suffer from an excess of priorities, a modern phenomenon since the word was originally singular. To restore focus, use the "hell yes" test: if a new initiative doesn't elicit an enthusiastic "hell yes" from stakeholders, it's not a true priority and should be dropped or postponed.

Facing a critical frontend rewrite that ballooned from 6 to 24 months, Canva couldn't ship new features. To maintain morale during this "dark tunnel," they gamified the process with a physical game board and rubber duckies representing components, making the grueling work bonding and even partly fun.

Jacobs's team uses the acronym WOTWOM—Waste Of Time, Waste Of Money—as a rapid check on new ideas. Any suggestion can be challenged with this label if it doesn't clearly contribute to organic revenue growth or margin expansion. This simple tool creates a culture focused on high-leverage activities.

When narrowing down ideas, replace generic dot-voting with prompts tied to strategic goals. Ask participants to vote based on criteria like "potential to generate X million in revenue" or "ability to increase customer retention." This ensures the winning ideas directly address core business objectives.