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
   

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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
   

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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
   

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4. Help sell an idea - identify potential roadblocks to adoption and prepare
   countermeasures for them.
   Secondary Purpose of impact mapping
   

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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
   

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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.
   

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7. It shares a similar “triangular” structure
   to the lean value tree.
   Mission
   Goals
   Bets
   Initatives
   High level
   Low level
   

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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
   

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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
   

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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!
    

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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.
    

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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!
    

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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.
    

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15. How it compares to …
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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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.
    

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20. Izzy Wizzy, Let’s Get Busy ….
    

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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/
    

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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.
    

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