Every tech portfolio tells a story.

Some tell a story of focus. Others tell a story of chaos.

Projects launched with unclear outcomes.
Apps purchased without adoption.
Strategic priorities buried beneath tactical requests.

Most of the dysfunction doesn’t start with bad execution.
It starts with a broken intake process.

When ideas, requests, and proposals enter the system without structure or strategy, the downstream consequences are predictable: overloaded teams, wasted spend, and low business confidence in IT.

If we want better results, we need to fix where the work begins.

What does “tech intake” even mean?

The intake process is the front door to your tech ecosystem.

It’s how:

• Ideas become projects
• Requests become priorities
• Investments get greenlit (or not)

And yet… in most organizations, intake is:

• Informal (“Just email someone on the IT team”)
• Inconsistent (“Depends on which leader asks”)
• Invisible (“Who approved this, again?”)

That’s not a front door. That’s a side window someone pried open.

Why the front end matters more than ever

In today’s environment:

• Tech demand is exploding
• Budgets are under pressure
• Leaders are under scrutiny to show value

You can’t afford to chase every idea. But if you don’t manage them well, you’ll either waste resources or miss opportunities.

The quality of your intake process determines the quality of your tech strategy.

How to fix the front end

Make the door visible and accessible

Everyone should know:

• Where to submit a request or idea
• What the intake process looks like
• What’s expected of them

No more backchannels. No more VIP-only fast passes.

Introduce lightweight shaping not heavyweight reviews

Not every idea should become a project. But not every request needs a 12-slide deck either.

Create a middle space between brainstorming and execution, where ideas can be clarified, refined, and challenged with input from IT and business alike.

Pro tip: Ask shaping questions like:

• What business capability does this enable?
• What would success look like?
• What happens if we don’t do this?

This filters noise without killing good ideas.

Score and prioritize consistently

One of the biggest pain points? Competing priorities with no consistent evaluation criteria.

“Strategic” becomes a buzzword. “Urgent” becomes a default. And every idea looks like the most important thing.

Instead, build a simple prioritization rubric based on:

• Strategic alignment
• Business value/impact
• Technical feasibility
• Resource availability

Track requests, even the ones you say no to

Just because something doesn’t move forward now doesn’t mean it never will.

By capturing and tracking ideas (approved or not), you:

• Create transparency
• Build trust
• Reduce repeat requests
• Surface patterns over time

A transparent “not now” is better than a silent “no.”

Close the loop

Once decisions are made, tell people:

• What was decided
• Why
• What the next step is

This reinforces trust, educates requesters, and helps the organization mature.

Too many intake processes stop at “submit and wait.” That’s not management, that’s a black hole.

A smarter intake process unlocks smarter investments

When your intake process works, so does your portfolio. You get:

• Better-aligned initiatives
• Faster decision cycles
• Less noise for IT
• More trust from the business

You stop reacting to requests and start responding to opportunities.

Because great portfolios don’t start with the roadmap.
They start with what gets in the door in the first place.

Let’s stop treating intake as admin.
Let’s treat it as the first strategic filter of your tech future.

And when you get that right, everything else, from project success to business impact, gets a whole lot easier.

Getting intake right isn’t extra work. It’s the foundation of a healthier tech portfolio, where clarity, alignment, and measurable impact replace confusion and waste.