Impact Mapping - an introduction.

This is a short deck covering some training that I recently gave on impact mapping. Impact mapping provides a mid to high level overview of who is affects, and how they are affected, but a feature or service. It is useful in ensuring that you don't forget a key stakeholder when moving to deliver on some work.

Transcript

1. Impact Mapping
2. Agenda • Theory and background (15 min) • Worked example (15 min) • Q&A or more worked examples (10min) • Review and mini retro - would we use this? (5 min) Homework: come to the session with: - A “Goal” for one of your products - 3 or four stakeholders that goal has an impact on
3. •Strategic Planning – Strategic goals for new products (deliverables); •New products (deliverables) for new strategic goals •Define Quality – Agreements on purpose of deliverables •Agreements on metrics of change •Roadmap Management – Agreements to achieve Business goals •Frequent iterative releases to measure progress •Agreements on metrics for central business goals Purpose of impact mapping "the impact map describes the business and user values that a new product or service is expected to generate •why this solution is a good investment for the business •how people are going to gain (or lose) from it •what the solution should encompass in order to promote user satisfaction and business prosperity Can help with
4. Help sell an idea - identify potential roadblocks to adoption and prepare countermeasures for them. Secondary Purpose of impact mapping
5. Gojko Adzic first documented the technique in a 2011 It’s a “mind map” that focussed on impact - hence impact map” Seeks to highlight all assumptions that: 1. specific deliverable will lead to a specific behavioral change, and 2. particular behavioral change will help the organization achieve its goal Hyper brief history
6. More granular, more direct evidence, but less context Less granular, less evidence, but more context Impact mapping is fairly “high level”. Once you have validated what your goal is, it can help give guidance on what actions different stakeholders need to do in order for the goal to be achieved, but it get you to a designed or implemented solution for how to make those actions happen.
7. It shares a similar “triangular” structure to the lean value tree. Mission Goals Bets Initatives High level Low level
8. But we flip that triangle on it’s side, and look at “people” rather than project bets. High level Low level Why Who How What
9. activities outputs outcomes impact The things we do The things we produce The change we have in the world Changes in Behavior that drive results A short Segway about outputs and outcomes
10. But we flip that triangle on it’s side, and look at “people” rather than project bets. High level Low level What do you want to achieve? Who are the users involved? How do we Want each of their behaviours to change? Who can help achieve the goal? Who will be impacted by it? Who will prevent you from delivering? What can we do to make them change their behaviour in that way? User stories!
11. But we flip that triangle on it’s side, and look at “people” rather than project bets. What do you want to achieve? Who are the users involved? How do we Want each of their behaviours to change? Who can help achieve the goal? Who will be impacted by it? Who will prevent you from delivering? What can we do to make them change their behaviour in that way? User stories! Critically, this is where we can define observable metrics that can be used as a feedback mechanism.
13. Be specific. Avoid generic terms such as ‘users’. Tips Identify the Impact right. — Don't list everything an actor might want to achieve. List only the impacts that really help move you in the right direction towards the central goal. Identify the Deliverables right. — Don't try to make it complete from the start. Refine it iteratively as you deliver. Treat deliverables as options, don't take it for granted that everything listed here will actually be delivered. Never aim to implement the whole map. — Instead, find the shortest path through the map to the goal!
14. You get to see multiple key stakeholders, and how they might interact. Why I like it Driven through an outcome, over an output focus You get to see multiple key stakeholders, and how they might interact.
15. How it compares to …
16. How it compares to … User stories Is more general than user stories, and leads to them. I think on a first pass the “stories” you generate from an impact map should be much less detailed than what you would write up for a user story that was in preparation for UX or development because you want to have a wider view, and generate a lot more stories than you will have time to flesh out in detail.
17. How it compares to … User personas / Value proposition canvas Aims to look at multiple different stakeholders at the same time. Critically it invites us to look at internal stakeholders too, and to actors that could get in the way of delivering on a goal.
18. How it compares to … Lean Value Tree It’s like the LVT but flipped on its side. A leaan value tree from the west of Ireland, if you will. And also with people instead of bets, and with impact instead of goals.
19. How it compares to … Value stream mapping They sound similar, but are different. Value stream mapping looks at a process end to end, and tries to determine information about the process like how much effort each step takes, how much value is being created at each step, what the overall lead times are for the entire process. Impact mapping looks at the effects of a goal on different people, and they do not need to be connected by any single process.
20. Izzy Wizzy, Let’s Get Busy ….
21. Resources • https://www.impactmapping.org • https://www.plays-in-business.com/impact-mapping/#post/0 • https://opensource.com/open-organization/17/6/experiment-impact-mapping • https://uxpressia.com/blog/impact-mapping • https://www.plays-in-business.com/impact-mapping/
22. Examples Don’t worry, we’re not going to go through all of these on Monday, this just shows how messy this process can be.