Impact Mapping

Why use Impact Mapping?

Impact Mapping is one of the most effective techniques for Product Teams to put the concept of working towards Outcomes into practice. It has helped many teams I've worked with to approach their everyday work with more confidence and ease when it came to prioritizing ideas, communicating direction and structuring discovery work.

When should you use Impact Mapping?

1. When you want to ensure outcome-orientation of new and existing ideas in scenarios such as part of a quarterly or yearly review and planning sessions. The product team can utilize impact mapping to focus the conversation on goals and blind spots, instead of features. 

2. When deciding if features ideas contribute to the strategic direction of the company, or not and therefore are not worth pursuing. The product team can use impact mapping as guidance for working with the insights and evidence from their Product Discovery mission. 

An Impact Map also becomes a useful tool to keep executives and stakeholders up-to-date regarding the discovery process without causing “death by PowerPoint.”