Does your team struggle with analysis paralysis, poor prioritization, and wasted time or resources? Then it sounds like you need an Impact Effort Matrix. This simple visualisation tool can help your team to start thinking realistically about what a task requires and what results can be achieved.
In this guide, we’ll explain how to use this planning cheat code and include a free-to-use Workmajig Impact Effort Matrix template.
What is an Impact Effort Matrix?
An Impact Effort Matrix (also referred to as an ‘Effort Impact Matrix’ or ‘Action Priority Matrix’) is a simple visual tool used to aid decision-making over tasks and initiatives.
Using two key factors (impact and effort), it becomes easy to quickly identify both the difficulty and value of tasks, so you can determine which to prioritize your team’s time and resources towards.
How to Use the Impact Effort Matrix
Understanding the Axis
An Impact Effort Matrix features a grid, with each axis representing effort and impact:
- X-axis (Effort): The amount of energy, resources, and time required to successfully complete the task.
- Y-axis (Impact): The value gained from completion, such as revenue, customer satisfaction, or improvements to your work management.
The Four Quadrants
The grid is split into four quadrants, with each space filled out with a task to be completed. These are:
Big Bets: High Effort, High Impact
Big Bets are tasks that bring big results, but at the cost of substantial resources, time, and energy output. Therefore, they can potentially be considered a risk. However, in ambitious projects with margin for risk, they can be considered a high priority.
Quick Wins: Low Effort, High Impact
Quick wins bring big returns, with minimal risk. You can consider these tasks as growth drivers, with minimal resource investment. Quick wins should be a high priority.
Fill-Ins: Low Effort, Low Impact
Fill-ins require minimal effort, but bring minimal value. They can be great to turn to in periods of downtime and to keep things moving, without using up resources. However, they should be overlooked if resources are better spent on high-impact results.
Money Pit: High Effort, Low Impact
Money pit tasks should be forgotten about. They bring minimal results that aren’t worth the high demands required to complete. By recognising this early on, you’ll avoid wasting your resources and time.
Use Our Free Impact Effort Matrix Template: For Excel and Google Sheets
Feel free to access our free Workamajig Impact Effort Matrix Template to get started quickly. It features formulas that will automatically sort your tasks into the correct quadrants. It is made for free use in Google Sheets but can also be downloaded as an Excel file.
How to use our template:
- Insert your task using the grey pink on the left.
- Use the dropdown buttons to choose an Impact and Effort rating.
- The matrix will automatically update.
- Select the check boxes when a task is complete.
How To Create An Impact Effort Matrix in 5 Steps
Step 1: Call a Meeting!
Get the relevant team members and stakeholders together, because it’s time to gain firsthand knowledge of how long a task is supposed to take and how much effort is required. If there are conflicts, take a vote.
Step 2: Identify Objectives and Goals
To determine if a task provides value, you’ll need to understand how it relates to your objectives and team goals. So, before plotting that chart, consider brainstorming the main objectives and team goals. In many cases, you may already have this worked out.
Step 3: Create the Matrix
This one’s simple! Use our template or create an Impact Effort Matrix from scratch and save it as your own template for later.
Step 4: Fill Out the Quadrants
Plot your tasks into the matrix, depending on how much effort and impact each action can have. It can be wise to do this with key team members to ensure agreement.
Step 5: Act on your results
Now that you’ve got that nice visual matrix created, you can create an action plan to cut out time wasters and get to work in a more efficient manner.
How Do You Calculate Impact vs. Effort?
Calculating the effort and impact levels of a task is more of an educated estimation rather than a precise formula. But that works just fine in the context of an impact effort matrix. You can score each from 1-5 to make things clearer.
Calculating Impact
In an Impact Effort Matrix, impact means the value of the results of the task. Consider:
- The revenue potential.
- The scale of impact, such as how many users will benefit.
- If it will make a big difference to the company’s goals.
- If it streamlines work processes.
- And if it solves a pressing customer pain point.
Calculating Effort
Effort is all about time, people, costs, and complexity. Consider:
- How long will it take to complete
- The number of team members required
- Their skill levels
- The technical complexity
- The budget or estimated costs
- The dependencies on other tasks or teams.
When Should You Use an Impact Effort Matrix?
Think of an Impact Effort Matrix as a prioritization chart. By using it, you and your team can see in seconds which tasks are worth your team and which aren’t. While you can use the tool alone, it can be of great use in team meetings and collaborations where you need to quickly display the value and impact of a particular set of tasks.
Here are some popular examples of when it’s time to turn to an Impact Effort Matrix
1. Product Roadmap Planning
Product managers can align on business goals by quickly understanding which features or updates offer value for money, and which don’t.
2. Sprint Planning
Agile teams should use an Impact Effort Matrix before each sprint or program increment to help them understand what to focus on next.
3. Managing a Backlog
Nobody likes a big ol’ stress backlog. It can be a painful cycle to get out of, but you can use an Impact Effort Matrix to help filter out tasks that waste time.
4. Brainstorming or Innovation Sessions
If you’ve got a bunch of ideas you like, but aren’t sure what to pursue, then lay them out in an Impact Effort Matrix grid to visualize where to go next.
5. Strategic Decision-Making
When deciding between initiatives, you can offer leadership and team members a fast, easy-to-understand guide to align on which route to take.
6. Operational Improvements
Finally, if you’re tired of seeing your team work on projects that feel like a waste of time, then you can cut out those tasks (to focus on those with the best ROI) with the matrix’s prioritization guide. Most commonly, it can help cut out underestimating how much effort a task will take.
Benefits of the Impact Effort Matrix
Simplified Decision Making.
Team members can quickly identify the priority without spending time discussing the pros and cons again. There’s no need to dive through data and emails. It’s laid out before you, eliminating guesswork and streamlining the decision-making process.
Better Resource Use.
Time, money, and employee energy are all limited. An Impact Effort matrix helps you avoid exerting these resources on low-value tasks. Over time, these small changes can result in significant savings and better usage.
Improved Output.
With an increased awareness of what tasks are a waste of time, your team's output becomes hyper-focused on meaningful results, minimal waste, and a slicker system.
Everyone’s On The Same Page.
The pure simplicity of the matrix increases transparency within any team, helping to improve alignment. So, everyone is aware of the decision-making behind a strategy. That can reduce conflicts (even the passive-aggressive types) and get the team working with more power.
Better Balance Over Goals.
While a matrix shows you the most impactful goals for the long-term (big bets), it also shows you which are better in the short term (quick wins and fill-ins). We find this can really improve the balance between getting the overall vision complete, while still making an instant impact.
Adaptable.
Finally, the Impact Effort Matrix is so easy to understand that you can use it in every area of your team or business, from marketing and personal productivity to planning and HR.
In turn, that means everyone can re-evaluate their tasks, remain aligned, and understand the motivations behind their upcoming workloads.
Pro Tips for Creating an Impact Effort Matrix
- Make objectives clear: If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, it’s hard to understand what quadrants to prioritize. So, define what you need resolved. For many people, it’s about reducing waste on low-value tasks, but for others, it can be about reducing the conflict in teams.
- Involve key personnel early: Gaining the opinions of key stakeholders at the outset will maximize the matrix validity. Without insider info, the matrix is prone to underestimating the true cost of effort.
- Stay consistent: As you use the matrix across different PIs and projects, remember to be consistent. Failure to keep the value of high effort and high impact the same will likely lead to confusion. For example, 3 months can’t be ‘high effort’ now but ‘low effort’ later in the year.
- Normalize its use: Don’t let the efforts of your nice matrix (and our lovely template) go to waste. Include it in sprint planning, roadmap reviews, and any team meeting where alignment or strategy is the crux.
- Explain the matrix: A matrix is nothing if your team doesn't know what they’re looking at. Feel free to send them this blog, or quickly run through the concept if any colleagues are unfamiliar with it.
Impact Effort Matrix is just a small part in transforming any team into an efficient and aligned beast. If you’d like to learn more, we welcome you to request a free personal demo with Workamajig to discover how a powerful agency management system can transform your projects into profits.
Originally published September 25, 2025.