Impact Effort Matrix

Are you struggling to prioritize projects? Do you need to prioritise your product roadmap to focus on the features that will provide the greatest value to your customers?

Then the Impact Effort Matrix and this template can help you with that! This framework will help you improve your team's productivity by providing guidance on how to prioritise your projects by defining the impact and effort of your activities.

What is the Impact Effort Matrix

The impact effort matrix is a decision making tool designed to help teams prioritize work based on the effort it takes and the impact it has. Applied to a product development roadmap, this framework can help you decide which features to develop first based on the effort it takes to build and the impact it will have on the customer experience.

All you need to do is determine the level of effort and the level of importance of each item or feature on a scale of Low, Medium and High. Based on that information, your items will be plotted on a 3x3 matrix which can be grouped into 4 areas:

• Area 1 - Low Effort and Medium or High Impact: These should be your top priorities as they represent quick wins. They’re items that don't require a lot of effort but that have a big impact.
• Area 2 - Medium or High Effort and High Impact: These are your P2s. They are big projects that require a lot of time and effort but that have a big impact.
• Area 3 - Medium or High Effort and Medium Impact: These are your P3s. They require significant effort and have moderate impact.
• Area 4 - Low, Medium or High Effort and Low Impact: You should rethink these items. They're likely time wasters as they have little to no impact.

What's Included

• Items database (items can be projects, tasks or product roadmap items)
• Impact-Effort matrix view of items in 2 formats:
  • Kanban style Matrix
  • Linked Databases Matrix (color coded)

With this framework, you'll be able to optimize limited time and resources and ensure that you and your team are aligned on priorities.

If you want to learn how to build a matrix in Notion from scratch, check my tutorial below:

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is this template for?

It's for anyone in need of a simple upvoting system in Notion (Notion workspace members & guests can vote).

2. How do I get access to this template?

After you have completed your purchase, a link to the template will be shared with you. Then you just need to click on "Duplicate" at the top right hand corner of the page to save a copy of the template to your own Notion workspace.

3. What is Notion?

Notion is a powerful all-in-one productivity and collaboration tool. For businesses and for individuals. Sign up here so you can duplicate this template and edit it in your workspace.

4. Who are you?

I'm Carina, a Director of Customer Success at Navan and a Notion certified creator.

Follow me on Twitter and Youtube for customer success, productivity & Notion insights 🙌