Questions, answered directly.
No hedging and no demo-request gates. If something here is out of date or unclear, that’s a bug.
Is Tarazu free?
Yes. Everything currently available is free, with no card required. Paid tiers are planned for shared workspaces and org-level controls, but nothing is behind a paywall today.
Do I need an account to use Tarazu?
No. Guest mode is fully functional: your workspace is stored in your browser's local storage and never leaves the device. You only need an account if you want your work synced across machines.
What is RICE scoring?
RICE ranks a backlog by dividing value by cost: (Reach × Impact × Confidence) ÷ Effort. Reach is how many people an item affects, impact is how much it matters to each of them, confidence is how much you trust those estimates, and effort is what it costs to build.
What scale does Tarazu use for RICE inputs?
All four inputs use a 1–100 scale, and the score is round((reach × impact × confidence) ÷ max(effort, 1)). Normalizing every input to the same scale makes scores comparable across teams and quarters, at the cost of the literal 'reach in users per quarter' reading that classic RICE gives you.
Which AI models does Tarazu use?
Anthropic's Claude. Whole-backlog analysis runs on Claude Opus; per-candidate score suggestions run on Claude Sonnet. Both models are configurable through environment variables if you self-host.
Does the AI make prioritization decisions for me?
No. Every AI output is a draft with its reasoning attached, and a person has to accept it before it counts. The point of a prioritization system is that someone is accountable for the call, and you cannot hold a model accountable.
Where is my data stored?
In guest mode, entirely in your browser's local storage — nothing is sent to a server. If you sign in, your workspaces sync to a Postgres database with row-level security enabled.
Does my data get sent to Anthropic?
Only when you run an AI feature, and only the workspace content needed for that request. The API key lives server-side in Tarazu's own API routes and is never shipped to the browser. If you never use the AI features, nothing leaves your device in guest mode.
Can I import my existing prioritization spreadsheet?
Yes. Tarazu imports CSV and maps your columns onto reach, impact, confidence, and effort, with aliases recognised for common column names. Values outside the 1–100 range are clamped rather than rejected.
Can I export my data?
Yes. Ranked candidates export to CSV, and the priority view exports to PDF. There is no lock-in: what you import you can take back out.
Does Tarazu work offline?
Guest mode does, since it runs against local storage. The app detects when you go offline and tells you. AI features need a connection, because they call Anthropic's API.
What is the tradeoff map?
A scatter plot of your backlog with effort on the horizontal axis and impact on the vertical, split into four quadrants. The boundaries are QUICK WIN (effort ≤ 50, impact > 50), STRATEGIC (effort > 50, impact > 50), FILL-IN (effort ≤ 50, impact ≤ 50), and THANKLESS (effort > 50, impact ≤ 50).
How is Tarazu different from a roadmap tool like Jira or Productboard?
Those tools are built to track work; Tarazu is built to decide what work to do. It ends where a roadmap tool begins — with a ranked list, a recorded rationale, and an outcome to measure against later.
Is there a mobile app?
No, but the web app is responsive and works on a phone. The three-panel desktop layout collapses to a bottom-tab layout on small screens.
Who built Tarazu?
Kristen Martino, an AI-native product manager. Tarazu began as a demonstration that prioritization deserves a purpose-built system rather than another spreadsheet.
Still looking?
How it works walks the full decision loop step by step. The RICE guide covers the scoring model, a worked example, and where the framework stops helping. Tarazu vs. spreadsheets compares the tool categories honestly, including when a spreadsheet wins.
Easier to try than to read about.
Guest mode needs no account and runs entirely in your browser.