Impact Effort Map

Impact Effort Map

What is the Impact Effort Map workshop tactic?

This tactic helps you group ideas together based on how much effort they require to carry out and how much impact they’ll have on your goal.

Narrowing down your ideas means that you can focus on what is going to be the easiest and most valuable thing to work on.

Prior to this tactic, gather a list of items such as ideas from Idea Eight, or problems from Sailboat, Journey Map, Service Map or Empathy Map.


Impact Effort Miro Template


How to use the Impact Effort Map tactic in your workshop

1. Gather your ideas together and write a name for each one on a sticky note.

2. Draw a Priority Map with 'Impact' and 'Effort' on the axes. Make sure it’s big enough to fit all your ideas!

Impact Effort priority matrix template

Low effort, low impact: Do later
Low effort, high impact: Do now
High effort, low impact: Forget it
High effort, high impact: Do later

3.
Plot each idea on the graph. Discuss each one in turn. As a group, decide how much effort is involved and what the impact will be.

4. Make a plan with Sticky Steps on how you’ll action the ideas in 'Do now'. Create commitment to those actions with Who, What, When.

Origin: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954

Not sure if this is the right approach for your team at the moment? Try a different decision-making tactic. Once you know which direction your team should take, use a discussion tactic to help facilitate your team’s progress together.

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Impact Effort Map is one of 54 workshop recipe cards inside the Workshop Tactics card deck.

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