UX Glossary | I
Impact-effort matrix
Also: Prioritisation matrix
A two-by-two that plots ideas by the value they deliver against the work they cost, to show where to start.
An impact-effort matrix is a two-by-two grid. One axis is the value an idea would deliver, to users or to the business. The other is the effort to deliver it. Each idea gets a sticky note and the position on the grid suggests an order of attack.
The four quadrants
High impact, low effort are the quick wins: do these first. High impact, high effort are the big bets: worth doing, but they need planning and should not crowd out the wins. Low impact, low effort are fill-ins, done when someone has a spare afternoon. Low impact, high effort are the ones to drop, and saying so out loud is half the value of the exercise.
Where it works and where it does not
It is fast, it needs no spreadsheet, and it is good in a workshop because everyone can see the whole picture at once. That also limits it. With thirty items the clusters blur, and “impact” is usually a guess dressed as a position. When you need a defensible ranking rather than a conversation, move to the RICE method or a scorecard.
Common mistake
Letting the designer place the effort axis. Effort belongs to whoever will build the thing, so have engineering place those notes. Teams that skip this discover, a sprint later, that a quick win was a three-week migration.