The impact-effort grid
Draw two axes: impact (benefit if done) and effort (cost, time, difficulty). Place each option in one of four quadrants:
| Low effort | High effort | |
|---|---|---|
| High impact | Do first (quick wins) | Plan as projects |
| Low impact | Fill-ins when time allows | Avoid |
It takes ten minutes with sticky notes and is enough for a team deciding which of the week's problems to attack.
The weighted prioritisation matrix
When the choice is bigger, such as which improvement projects get the year's resources, a weighted matrix is more defensible:
- Agree the criteria: for example safety benefit, customer impact, cost saving, ease, time to result.
- Weight each criterion (for example out of 10) so that the important ones count more.
- Score each option against each criterion (for example 1, 3 or 9).
- Multiply score by weight and sum across the row.
- Rank by total and sense-check the result; a surprise usually means a weight is wrong.
Common mistakes
- Scoring in private and then arguing about the result; score together.
- Too many criteria, so everything comes out equal.
- Ignoring the ranking because a senior person prefers a different project, which teaches the team not to bother.
- Never reprioritising when the board shows a new problem has become urgent.
Prioritisation and daily management
The tier board generates more problems than any team can solve at once. The prioritisation matrix is how the Tier 2 meeting chooses the few to run as projects, using the Pareto of recent issues and the strategic goals as the criteria. The ranked list is reviewed monthly and the chosen projects appear on the board.