Prioritize opportunities with the Impact/Difficulty Matrix
The Impact/Difficulty matrix is a valuable prioritization tool. By evaluating the potential impact of a project against the level of effort required to complete it, teams can determine which projects are worth pursuing and which may not be worth the investment.
As the last stage of the Problem Prioritization Toolkit, the Impact/Difficulty matrix helps teams make informed decisions about where to focus their resources, time, and energy for the maximum amount of payoff.
Two examples of situations in which you might complete an Impact/Difficulty matrix:
A product team is considering implementing several new features in their app that would require significant development resources. They want to evaluate which features justify the investment of time and resources.
A company is considering entering a new market or launching a new product. They want to evaluate the potential impact of ideas to pull it off, and the level of difficulty involved in each to determine what to bring to market.
We run an Impact/Difficulty session during the Problem Framing stage, which we complete as a preamble to a design sprint or a dedicated strategy sprint to identify priorities.
How to Complete the Impact / Difficulty Matrix as a Team: Step by Step
You’ll want to complete an idea-generation activity before Impact/Difficulty. This could be as simple as answering a How Might We question with ideas on stickies. To go more in-depth, try leading with the Smart Sailboat exercise.
Part 1: Plot
Start with a collection of ideas on stickies. The Facilitator drags a post-it to the center of the Impact axis.
Drag the next problem and put it next to the first. Ask the group, will solving this problem create more or less impact than the first problem? Plot this post-it based on the group discussion either directly above (if more impact) or below (if less impact) the first sticky.
Repeat until all problems have been plotted along the Impact axis.
Start from the 2nd most top sticky - Will solving this problem be more or less difficult than the top most sticky? Adjust the first and/or second sticky based on their relevant difficulty to each other.
Move to the next post-it down and repeat until all problems have been plotted along the Difficulty axis.
Part 2: Prioritize
In this step, you’ll add a categorization grid on top of your graph. The grid is meant to suggest the relative priority of the plotted problem stickies, and ultimately help inform which problem makes most sense to move forward with.
After the team has plotted all of the stickies within the Impact vs. Difficulty grid, which can be found in the Problem Prioritization Toolkit. Drag this visual over and on top of the Problem Categorization grid.
Review as a team.
The Facilitator asks the team to vote on their choice for top problem. Each team member is given 1-2 votes. Voting can be done by using Freehand's Reaction feature. If there's a tie, vote once more on only the top-voted.
The team reflects on the top-voted problem and agrees upon next steps.
Find Win-Wins with an Impact Analysis
What if your team doesn’t agree on the definition of “impact?” Impact is a wiggle word, which means it doesn’t have a clear and universal definition. Some stakeholders might have business impact in mind, like revenue. Others might have the customer experience in mind.
Neither are wrong — in fact, the best product teams are made up of diverse voices who look at opportunities with different perspectives. It’s important to bring those perspectives together and create a shared definition.
If your team isn’t quite on the same page about the definition if impact, define it. Here’s a common scenario: business stakeholders are thinking about revenue when they plot “impact,” while designers are thinking about user needs. Find impact win-wins before moving on to an impact/difficulty activity by looking at the effect of each idea based on both definitions. You can use this activity as a filter to find high-revenue, high-user-value ideas that multiple folks feel excited about.
Get Started With the Impact / Difficulty Matrix
Impact/Difficulty is part of the Problem Prioritization Toolkit — get access to it here. The Problem Prioritization Toolkit has helped 2,714 product leaders prioritize effectively. Are you next?
