RICE vs FVI: Ranking Work by Reach or by Money
By Road map ROI, from Cookie Tech, which builds custom software · Published Jun 21, 2026 · Last updated Nov 3, 2026
What changed: Fixed an example that mixed two effort units, merged our FVI guide and added three items whose order flips.
The same backlog can come out in a different order. Here is why.
Scoring · ~10 min (est.)
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RICE = (R × I × C) ÷ E vs FVI = ($ × Confidence) ÷ person-weeks
- Inputs
- Reach · Impact or dollar value · Confidence · Effort
- Output
- RICE: a rank. FVI: dollars per person-week.
- When to use
- When someone asks how much money an item is worth and a score of 3 is no answer.
- Replaces
- Arguing about a rank instead of the numbers behind it.
RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) is a scoring method created at Intercom (Sean McBride, 2018). It is quick and gives you a ranked list, but no dollar figure. FVI (Forced-Value Index) is our own method, not a published standard. It keeps RICE's confidence discount and replaces reach and impact with an expected dollar value. On one backlog they can disagree, and the disagreement is the useful part.
The two formulas
RICE = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) ÷ Effort. Reach is people per quarter, Impact is 0.25 to 3, Confidence is 50%, 80% or 100%, and Effort is person-months. The result is a score that only means something next to other scores. FVI = (Expected value in dollars × Confidence) ÷ Effort in person-weeks. The result is dollars per person-week.
Three items whose order flips
The numbers are invented. A month counts as 4 weeks here, so Effort is the same work in both columns. RICE puts onboarding first and the big-account report last. FVI puts onboarding last and the checkout fix first.
| Item (reach, impact, confidence, effort) | RICE | Expected value | FVI per person-week |
|---|---|---|---|
| New onboarding (8,000, 2, 70%, 4 months) | 2,800 | $180,000 | $7,875 |
| Checkout fix (1,500, 1, 80%, 1 month) | 1,200 | $120,000 | $24,000 |
| Report for big accounts (300, 2, 80%, 2 months) | 240 | $90,000 | $9,000 |
Why they disagree
RICE counts people, and FVI counts money. A report for 300 big accounts reaches few people, so RICE ranks it last, even if those accounts pay most of your revenue. Onboarding touches everyone, so it scores high even if each person is worth little. Neither is wrong. They answer different questions. When they disagree, ask why before you pick one, because the reason is often something the team has not said out loud.
Set FVI against what a week costs
Because FVI is in dollars per person-week, you can compare it with what a week of that person costs. In our example on the full cost of a team, that was about $3,700. All three items above clear it, so only the order is open. An item below that line is costing more than it is expected to return.
FVI in our calculator
Our Software ROI calculator asks for a cost instead of weeks, so its FVI reads differently: (yearly benefit minus running costs) × years × confidence ÷ cost. That gives the expected return per dollar spent, so a result above 1 means you expect to get back more than you put in. Use one form across a backlog, and do not compare the two.
When to use which
Our advice: use RICE for a weekly pass over one team's backlog, where speed matters more than precision. Use FVI when the work competes for budget with something that is not product work, such as a hire or a marketing spend. FVI's weak spot is the dollar value, which you have to estimate, so write down where it came from. A plot of FVI against effort helps: high value and low effort first, and take a second look at low value and high effort.
Sources: Intercom, RICE (Sean McBride, 2018). Other figures on this page are illustrative or our assumption.