---
id: ins_four-bb-prioritization
operator: Anuj Rathi
operator_role: VP Product (former Swiggy, Jupiter)
source_url: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-full-stack-pm-anuj-rathi-swiggy
source_type: podcast
source_title: Anuj Rathi on Full-Stack PM, Working Backwards, India Marketplace Dynamics — Lenny's Podcast
source_date: 2026-04-28
captured_date: 2026-05-01
domain: [product, leadership]
lifecycle: [strategy-bets, process-cadence]
maturity: applied
artifact_class: framework
score: { originality: 4, specificity: 4, evidence: 3, transferability: 5, source: 5 }
tier: B
related: [ins_three-divergent-pr-faqs]
raw_ref: raw/podcasts/anuj-rathi--full-stack-pm-working-backwards--2026-04-28.md
---

# Sort the roadmap into four buckets, Brilliant Basics, Bread-and-Butter, Big Bets, Breaking Bad

## Claim
Most teams treat all work as equally urgent. Anuj's four-bucket framework makes the bucket explicit: **Brilliant Basics** (reliability, infrastructure, never tag as tech debt), **Bread-and-Butter** (iteration on existing campaigns/features), **Big Bets** (larger ideas with named risk), **Breaking Bad** (existential redefinition of the company). Confusion between buckets produces sprawl; clarity on the mix produces leverage.

## Mechanism
Each bucket has a different cost of failure, success criterion, and stakeholder. Lumping them together forces a single review cadence and a single risk tolerance, both wrong. Sorting the work into the four buckets surfaces over- and under-investment. Most companies under-fund Brilliant Basics (treats them as debt to delay) and over-fund Bread-and-Butter (the safe, visible work).

## Conditions
Holds when:
- Leadership is willing to engage with bucket allocation explicitly.
- The team is large enough to staff multiple buckets simultaneously.

Fails when:
- A startup pre-PMF should mostly be in Big Bets or Breaking Bad. The four-bucket frame is for orgs with existing surface to maintain.
- The labels become tribal, "we're a Big Bets team", and Brilliant Basics gets starved.

## Evidence
> "Brilliant Basics... you cannot brand as tech debt. These are important, the company's built on that. Bread and Butter is your backlog... Big Bets are larger ideas... Breaking Bad is where you redefine your company."

· Anuj Rathi on Lenny's Podcast, 2026-04-28

## Signals
- Roadmap reviews start with bucket allocation, not feature lists.
- Brilliant Basics get explicit time budget, not residual time.
- Big Bets have named hypotheses and pre-committed kill criteria.

## Counter-evidence
The labels invite over-engineered prioritization theatre. Some operators (Brian Halligan, Brian Chesky) argue for one or two clear bets per quarter, with everything else compressed. Anuj's framework is more useful in large mature companies; smaller orgs may want simpler frames.

## Cross-references
- `ins_three-divergent-pr-faqs`, the decision protocol that fits inside Big Bets bucket