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RICE framework · Free calculator

RICE prioritization: guide and free calculator

RICE scores an idea as Reach × Impact × Confidence ÷ Effort. In Intercom's original, each factor has a real unit: people per period, an impact multiplier, a confidence percentage, person-months. Run the same formula on 1–10 ratings and you get a valid ranking that cannot be compared with the original. The calculator below uses Intercom's units, and the worked example shows how the same idea scores on 1–10 ratings.

What it is and where it came from

A relative ranking tool, not an automatic decision

Intercom developed RICE to compare product ideas using four explicit factors: Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. Reach is counted per period, Impact uses a defined multiplier, Confidence is a percentage, and Effort is measured in person-months.

Source: Intercom: RICE, simple prioritization for product managers

How the score is calculated

One formula, two unit systems

Intercom method · source units

(Reach × Impact × Confidence) ÷ Effort

There is one RICE formula. What varies between teams is the units: Intercom counts reach per period, applies an Impact multiplier, expresses Confidence as a percentage, and measures Effort in person-months. Hypotize keeps the formula and asks the team to rate all four factors from 1 to 10 instead, because a shared rubric is faster to calibrate than per-idea reach counts.

What the team rates

What each letter must make explicit

Reach

How many people or events the initiative will affect in a defined period.

Keep it grounded: State the unit and period, such as customers per quarter.

Impact

Expected effect per person reached.

Keep it grounded: Intercom uses defined multipliers; Hypotize uses a relative 1–10 score.

Confidence

How strongly the estimates are supported.

Keep it grounded: Intercom expresses this as a percentage; Hypotize uses 1–10.

Effort

Total work required across the people involved.

Keep it grounded: Intercom uses person-months; Hypotize uses a relative 1–10 effort score.

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Try it on a real backlog item

Inputs stay in this browser. Nothing is sent to Hypotize by this calculator.

Intercom source units

People or events per period

Intercom multiplier, usually 0.25–3

Percentage, 0–100

Person-months

Intercom method · source units

Intercom score

640

(Reach × Impact × Confidence) ÷ Effort

Before you compare scores: Reach counts and person-months have no universal 1–10 conversion, so an Intercom-style score and a 1–10 score are not interchangeable. Rank a backlog with one set of units, not both.

Download this result:

Worked example

The same idea in both unit systems

An Intercom-style estimate of Reach 800 per period, Impact 2, Confidence 80%, and Effort 2 person-months scores 640. Rated by a team in Hypotize as Reach 8, Impact 7, Confidence 6 with Effort 3, the same idea scores 112. Both rankings are valid; they are just not comparable to each other.

Decision rules

When to use RICE, and when not to

Use it when

  • Reach differs materially across initiatives.
  • You can estimate effort in a consistent unit.
  • The team needs to expose confidence and scale assumptions.

Do not let it decide when

  • Reach cannot be measured in a consistent period.
  • Small score differences would create false precision.
  • Dependencies, obligations, or strategic sequencing determine priority.

Common input failures

  • Large reach estimates can dominate weak evidence.
  • Confidence percentages look precise even when they are judgment calls.
  • Effort estimates omit coordination or future maintenance.

In Hypotize

How Hypotize ranks this experiment

Hypotize runs (Reach × Impact × Confidence) ÷ Effort on the team's 1–10 ratings, producing scores from 0.1 to 1,000, and keeps the score with the experiment record. Teams with RICE scores saved before 28 August 2026: re-vote older items before comparing them with new ones.

A score ranks the backlog. It does not run the test. In Hypotize the score is attached to a record with enforced rules: the experiment cannot skip a stage, and nobody, teammate or AI agent, can mark it done without a measured result and a written learning. A ranked list tells you what to try first. A system makes sure you find out what happened.

Choose the right framework

Pick it by the question, not the math

ICE and PIE produce the same kind of number: an average of three 1–10 ratings. They differ in the questions they make the team answer. RICE is the one that changes the ranking, because reach and effort enter the formula.

ICE

What you rate
Impact, Confidence, Ease, each 1 to 10
The score
Average, stays on a 1–10 scale
Choose it when
Ranking many growth ideas quickly on one shared rubric.

PIE

What you rate
Potential, Importance, Ease, each 1 to 10
The score
Average, same arithmetic as ICE
Choose it when
Ranking pages and funnel steps for conversion work. The math matches ICE; only the questions change, which is why PIE does not need its own calculator.

RICE

What you rate
Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort
The score
(R × I × C) ÷ E, effort divides the score
Choose it when
When audience size and effort differ enough between ideas that they must change the ranking.

Keep the context

Score the idea here. Then put it somewhere it cannot die.

Read the experiment memory guideICE guideCreate your first experiment

Reviewed 29 August 2026. Source links identify the documented method; product behavior is derived from the current Hypotize framework configuration and calculator implementation.