How to Build an Impact Effort Matrix (A Step-by-Step Guide)

The matrix has a horizontal axis where the user can plot the level of impact and a vertical axis so that the user can plot the level of effort. So the four quadrants of the impact effort matrix become:

• High Impact - Low Effort (Your quick wins)
• High Impact - High Effort (The major projects)
• Low Impact - Low Effort (Fill-ins - low priority)
• Low Impact - High Effort (Time-wasters - Delete or delegate)

Why Use an Impact Effort Matrix? 

When you have a lot of work that needs to be accomplished, it can be hard to see where to start. The best starting point is to identify tasks that offer high impact with low effort. Finding such tasks can often be critical to your success.

Plotting your work on an impact effort matrix can be an easy visual representation of all the work you need to accomplish. It can help you understand where the quick wins are, and it can help you determine which tasks can be pushed back.

On the other hand, being able to list out the high-effort, low-impact tasks can be helpful when deciding what to put off or delegate. When you’re super busy, why spend a lot of precious time on tasks with extremely low potential impact on your team or project?

Benefits of an Impact Effort Matrix

There are many benefits to using an impact effort matrix as a tool in your decision-making process. These include:

Clearer prioritization

It’s hard to deny your highest priorities when you see them staring at you on the high-priority side of the matrix. Look at the activities that are the highest impact with the lowest effort, and that is a fairly easy place to get started. 

You can also feel good about the fact that you are making informed decisions about your priorities because you are looking at the bigger picture rather than considering tasks on an individual level.

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Faster decision-making 

When you’re trying to decide what is most important, the matrix can help you reach a conclusion more quickly. Seeing all of the work plotted on the matrix can help you make faster and better decisions about how you and your team members spend time.

Remember to include as many of your tasks as possible, not just those that are part of major projects or high-profile initiatives, to get a holistic view of your team’s work.

Improved resource allocation 

By focusing resources on the highest impact activities, you can improve resource allocation and help the team avoid burnout. Team members who spend a lot of time on low-impact, thankless tasks tend to disengage and feel burned out more quickly than team members who are working on high-impact tasks that are very visible within the organization. 

By looking at tasks in this way, you can improve how you are allocating resources across the work and ensure everyone has time in the spotlight.

Enhanced team alignment

Sharing a matrix with your team can help ensure everyone is fully aligned and prioritizing tasks the same way—even if it sparks some debate. Depending on the role, some other members of the team may feel that the level of effort is more or less than you estimated. 

Either way, using an impact effort matrix can be a great way to facilitate high-value discussions that lead to better team alignment.

Greater strategic focus

Another benefit of using an impact effort matrix is better strategic focus. If you look at the low impact, high effort quadrant of your matrix and see that it doesn’t align with project goals or team goals, you should probably work with your leadership team to either delegate that work to another team or a contractor or to de-prioritize the work entirely. 

Depending on what you find, you can come up with an alternative plan for those tasks so you and your team can focus on what matters most.

When to Use an Impact Effort Matrix

You should consider using your impact effort matrix when you have a lot of work that needs to be completed in a relatively short timeframe. If you only have a few things on your plate, it might take more time to set up and complete the matrix than it would be to simply do the work.

However, if you’ve been a project manager for any length of time, that scenario is probably not familiar to you. Whether you’re running multiple projects, getting pulled into business initiatives, or mentoring more junior staff, prioritizing tasks and deciding what to delay or delegate is probably a daily activity for you. 

So, starting and maintaining your own impact effort matrix might be a worthwhile activity for you to try.

Step-by-Step: How to Build an Impact Effort Matrix

If you’ve never built an impact effort matrix,  we will walk through the steps together and explore the prioritization process.

1. Choose your timeframe

Start by deciding what timeframe you are going to address with your matrix. Let’s say you’re looking just at this week. There may be some tasks on your list that are higher effort when you have less time to do them, so it may also be worth zooming out to the end of the month or quarter once you’ve completed the matrix for this week. 

You don’t want to miss the forest for the trees, but you also don’t want to overwhelm yourself or drive yourself crazy second-guessing the matrix.

2. List All Potential Items

The next step is to make a list of all of the items on your to-do list. Don’t worry about the durations or the impact just yet—all we are doing here is getting a complete picture of your work.

So, even if you think a task is a waste of time or you’re confident you won’t be able to do it this week, list it anyway. The idea is to throw everything at the wall and examine it all at once—you might be surprised at what you see if you don’t leave anything out. 

3. Estimate Impact

Now that you have a full list of tasks, you are going to rank your items from highest to lowest impact. The more people impacted, or the larger the project or initiative the item is tied to, the more likely it is to have a high impact on either the project or the organization.

4. Estimate Effort

Once you’ve finished estimating the impact, you’re going to repeat this process to estimate the level of effort. Keep in mind that this is your level of effort. Be honest about your abilities and limits. You may also want to make a note if a task is high effort for you, but could be low effort for another member of the team. 

This could be a great task to delegate if you find that you need to move some things off your plate later. That said, if it's low impact, it may be worth questioning if it needs to be done now (or at all).

5. Plot Items on the Matrix

The next step is to plot your items on the matrix. Now you will be able to visually see where each item on your list falls in terms of impact and effort. It may take a little bit of time to do this part—and it might be a little clunky at first—but you can strive for continuous improvement every time you create a new matrix. Practice makes perfect.

6. Analyze and Prioritize

When you have all of the tasks plotted on your matrix, it’s time to do some analysis and prioritize your work. Start with the items that take minimal effort but will have maximum impact. Then work your way across the matrix. The more effort and the less impact a task has on the team or the business, the lower it should be on your priority list.

Real Life Example of an Impact Effort Matrix 

Let’s look at a real life example of an impact effort matrix. Pretend you are a project manager overseeing three development projects at your company: a new website, a new section of a website, and a rebrand of a signature program. 

The new website is the highest profile/highest budget of the three projects and the rebrand is the smallest. You also have some administrative responsibilities on top of your projects. Here is the current to do list: 

• Schedule a follow-up meeting with Jennifer about the redirect plan for the new website. 
• Email Jennifer and Susan a list of questions the team had coming out of QA for the website
• Finish your article for the company newsletter on best practices for website QA
• Check in with Jon on the designs for the rebrand—the presentation to the stakeholders is in 4 days 
• Get approval on the final designs for the new website section—the content team asked for a few changes before development begins next week
• Review and approve timesheets and PTO requests 
• Revise the schedule for the remainder of the reband project 
• Update Forecast for the next two weeks 

Low Effort - High Impact (Do First)

• Schedule a follow-up meeting with Jennifer about the redirect plan for the new website. 
• Email Jennifer and Susan a list of questions the team had coming out of QA for the website
• Check in with Jon on the designs for the rebrand—the presentation to the stakeholders is in 4 days 

High Effort - High Impact (Do next)

• Finish your article for the company newsletter on best practices for website QA
• Review and approve timesheets and PTO requests 
• Update Forecast for the next two weeks 

Low Effort-Low Impact (Do quickly or delegate)

• Get approval on the final designs for the new website section—the content team asked for a few changes before development begins next week

High Effort-Low Impact (Delegate, delay, or don’t do)

• Revise the schedule for the remainder of the rebrand project 

Tips for Getting the Most Out of the Matrix

Want to get the most impact out of your matrix with the least amount of effort (see what I did there)? Here are some tips to get the most from your matrix

• Use team input to reduce bias: What feels important to you might not be that important to your team, so don’t hesitate to ask them. Having team input on the impact of tasks may help reduce your bias. Unfortunately, if the tasks are for you, then you are the only person who can accurately speak to the level of effort.
• Don’t overthink the scoring: Go with your gut! Usually, your first instinct as to how much effort something takes or the impact it has is correct. Even if you have a few things out of the “perfect” order, that’s okay. The point of the matrix is to get you working as efficiently as possible; perfection or always being right is not the goal here!
• Revisit the matrix regularly as conditions change: Tasks that have low impact at a certain point in the month or project may have a higher impact at a different point in time. For example, if one of your tasks is meeting with your client to get a list of topics for your copywriter for June, it might have less impact on May 1st than on May 28th since you want to ensure you have the topics for the copywriter before the beginning of June.
• Combine with other prioritization or decision-making tools if needed: Your impact effort matrix doesn’t have to be a standalone activity. Consult your product backlog, task management software, or even your forecasting tool to help you complete the matrix as needed. These digital tools may provide additional context to help you correctly plot tasks for you and your team. You might also pair it with the Ivy Lee method, which helps you translate matrix insights into a focused daily to-do list.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Now that I have made the impact effort matrix sound easy and loaded with potential benefits to both your workflow and the organization at large, it's time for a bit of caution. While the matrix can help provide clarity on what work to tackle first, it is not a silver bullet. 

Here are a few mistakes I have seen project managers and teams make when using an impact effort matrix (and how to avoid them):

• Being too subjective without group consensus: I’ve said this before, and I will say it again—just because something is a high impact or low effort task for you, it doesn’t mean it is for the person who needs to complete it or for the team overall. So, to avoid over- or underestimating in any area, make sure you get some buy-in from the team.
• Trying to be too precise with estimates: Estimates are meant to be a best guess as to how long something will take based on the information you have. To be quite honest, sometimes—especially early in a project—you don’t have enough information to make an exact estimate. 

It may be tempting to try to get things figured out in the moment, but you can easily spend almost as much time estimating as it takes to just do the thing. So, do your best, and consider re-estimating as you get more information. 

This will save time upfront that can be better utilized for other tasks. (Consider it high effort and low impact if you must!)

• Not updating the matrix regularly: An impact effort matrix is not a one-and-done exercise. You’ll want to keep it up-to-date as you move through the project. As deadlines near, the impact and effort of specific tasks may increase. It is important to be aware of that and ensure your team has the time and resources they need to complete their tasks as you move through the project.
• Ignoring low effort wins: Your impact effort matrix can spotlight some low-hanging fruit or easy wins. These are a great place to start your work, especially if you are new. 

It can help create tons of positive momentum on your team, so make sure you aren’t ignoring these wins in favor of going after something larger and more time-consuming from the start.

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