Concept / Term · Established
Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort
A product-prioritisation score that compares ideas using expected reach, impact and confidence divided by the effort required.
Field note
RICE compares initiatives through Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort. A typical score multiplies reach, impact and confidence, then divides by the estimated effort.
Intercom developed the framework to give product teams a more consistent way to compare opportunities than intuition or the loudest request.
Teams agree a time horizon, score candidate work and then discuss where assumptions or strategic priorities justify departing from the ranking.
The framework exposes assumptions and trade-offs, but its numerical result is a decision aid—not objective truth.
In a sentence“The onboarding fix has modest impact per user but a high RICE score because it reaches every new account.”