What is the Impact Effort Matrix
Impact Effort (or Value Effort, or Value Complexity) matrix is a lean prioritization tool that helps you visually divide the backlog into four parts depending on the task ROI:
- Quick Wins that provide maximum benefits with low efforts required.
- Major Projects that provide long-term returns but require more investments.
- Fill-Ins that are cheap to implement but don’t give much in return.
- Time-Sinks that require a lot of investments and provide minimal benefits.
In the Chart view issues are spread across the matrix diagram in the form of color-coded bubbles. This view gives you a detailed illustration of how the issues are spread out, and where exactly each issue falls on the matrix grid.
With the List view, you can see the issues falling into each quadrant in the form of a list. The Issues in the list are arranged in order of priority, with the top priority issue at the top.
Who can use the Impact Effort Matrix
Anybody can use the Impact Effort matrix to prioritize anything from personal to-dos to complex business projects to maximize productivity.
How to use the Impact Effort Matrix Template
1. Prepare a list of tasks to prioritize
Decide on the backlog scope requiring prioritization. Get the tasks into the template by:
- Importing from a task tracker
- Importing from a spreadsheet
- Creating new tasks in the template
2. Evaluate by the whole team
Each task must be estimated from 0 to 3 by two criteria: Impact and Effort. Best when evaluated by every member of the project.
- Impact — How big is the value for the main business objective?
0 — no impact
1 — low
2 — medium
3 — high
- Effort — How many resources will the implementation require?
0 — no real efforts
1 — low
2 — medium
3 — high
3. Discuss the priorities
After evaluation, all the tasks will be placed into the four quadrants according to the scores they got:
- Quick Wins — high impact and low effort.
- Major Projects — high impact and high effort.
- Fill-Ins — low impact and low effort.
- Thankless Tasks — low impact and high effort.
Discuss with the team whether you all agree with the priorities you got. Don’t take the results into work unquestioningly.
