Impact mapping

1. What this stage is about

Impact mapping is a strategic planning technique used in the Innovate stage of product development. It helps teams visualize the connection between business goals and the deliverables that will help achieve those goals. This collaborative method creates a visual map that shows the relationships between your business objectives, the actors involved, the impacts you want to create, and the deliverables that will help achieve those impacts.

Impact mapping is particularly valuable because it helps teams focus on outcomes rather than outputs, ensuring that product development efforts are aligned with business goals. It encourages creative thinking about different ways to achieve desired impacts and helps prioritize features based on their potential contribution to business objectives.

2. What you’ll learn

How to connect business goals to specific deliverables
How to identify key stakeholders and their roles in achieving goals
How to prioritize features based on their potential impact
How to visualize complex relationships between goals, actors, impacts, and deliverables
How to facilitate collaborative planning sessions with cross-functional teams
How to make more informed decisions about product development priorities

3. Tools and concepts used

Tools and concepts used

Impact Map Structure

Goal (Why)

The central Business objective you’re typing to achieve

Actors (Who)

The people who can help or hinder achieving the goal

Impacts (How)

The behaviors you want to influence in each actor

Deliverables (What)

The features or changes that will create the desired impacts

Group Ideas

Impact mapping works best as a collaborative exercise, bringing together diverse perspectives from different departments and roles. This collaborative approach ensures that all relevant viewpoints are considered and helps build consensus around priorities.

Evaluate Priorities

After creating an impact map, teams can evaluate which deliverables are likely to have the greatest impact on business goals, helping to prioritize development efforts.

4. Common mistakes to avoid

Focusing on solutions (deliverables) before clearly understanding the problem (goals)
Neglecting to involve all relevant stakeholders in the mapping process
Creating overly complex maps that are difficult to communicate and use
Failing to revisit and update the impact map as new information becomes available
Treating the impact map as a one-time exercise rather than an evolving tool
Confusing impacts (behavior changes) with deliverables (features)
Not connecting deliverables back to the original business goals

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