Prioritization Matrix
A fun collaborative process to compare the
relative merits of alternative actions using a
visual tool (without too many arguments)
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Objectives
• To compare the relative merits of alternative actions
using a visual tool
• To help shortlist the best candidates to take forward
• To quickly generate consensus among a group of
people on what should be considered a priority
When would you use it?
• Whenever you need to shortlist a large
number of items – ideas, opportunities or
solutions
• Best results with small to medium sized
groups (no more than 10)
Are there any rules?
• Do a quick evaluation initially (i.e. don’t debate)
• Remember that all ratings are relative and not absolute
• Moderate your evaluations once all the alternatives have
been rated
• Draw the priority segment last of all
• Always try and Action Plan at the end
Resources required
• A willing group of people (max 10 for best results)
• A large square piece of blank paper big enough for everyone to stand
around and see comfortably (1m by 1m is normally enough)
• Wall space to put the paper up on
• A private quiet open space surrounding the paper
• Post-it notes and lots of marker pens (at least one each plus a few extra
spares if required)
• No tables and chairs – this is a standing high-energy exercise
Roles and Responsibilities
Facilitator Team
Focused on getting through the process Contributes their ideas and expertise
Keeps the process on track Follows the process
Promotes creativity Helps the team attain the goal
Each team member records their own output using
pens and post-its
Process
1. The Facilitator explains the business objectives of the process (i.e. what is it we’re looking to achieve)
2. The Team brainstorms all candidates for action but does not put them on the chart yet
3. The Team rates each one according to:
– Impact (if we did this what favourable impact would it have on fulfilling our objective? 1=Low, 4=High)
– Do-ability (how easy would this be to do? 1=Hard, 4=Easy)
4. The Team places each on the chart according to their scores and moderates their relative positioning
to arrive at a sensible distribution
5. The Facilitator then draws the most favorable options sector in the top right of the matrix (everything
inside this should be both impactful and easy to do)
6. Action Planning time!
Brainstorm phase
• Use post-it notes to represent each item
• The person who has the idea must write
their own post-it
Prioritization phase
• Take each post-it note in turn and use the Team to rate the
item in terms of Impact (1=Low, 4=High) and Do-ability
(1=Hard, 4=Easy)
• Limit debate by driving for a quick consensus
• The ideal outcome is to have items distributed across the
matrix so that only a very small number appear in the top-
right
high
4
3
Impact
1
low
1 2 3 4
hard
Do-ability easy
Most favorable options
• Shortlist to a manageable number of items by
drawing a suitably scaled sector in the top right
of the Matrix
• Reducing the scale of the sector ensures that it
embraces only the number of items you are
looking to pursue
high
4
3
Impact
1
low
1 2 3 4
hard
Do-ability easy
Action Planning
• The Facilitator asks everyone to develop a high level action plan for the
Item #1:
highest priority items
• Work quickly in brainstorm mode; try not to get stuck in discussion What Who By when
• Ensure that actions are assigned to increase ownership for the solution
• Each action should be allocated a date by which it should be
completed
• Actions need not be captured in strict sequence as this will constrain
the brainstorming process
• At the end the Facilitator should thank the Team for their input (and
resulting commitment!)
How to prioritize issues rather than solutions
• It’s quite possible to use the same process for prioritizing issues too by replacing ‘Do-ability’ for
‘Desirability’ (i.e. how compelling is the desire for change?)
• We must distinguish clearly between impact and desirability – they are different. The danger is to consider
them as the same thing (i.e. anything with high impact must be desirable, while anything with low impact is
not). This misses the point as Impact reflects the rational side of change, while desirability reflects the
emotional and political elements. Distinguish between them as follows:
– For any change to be successful there must be a good reason to do it. Typically this means there must be some favorable impact
on something as a result. This deals with the rational side of change.
– However, you fool yourself if you think that favorable impact alone is sufficient to succeed in executing change. There are plenty of
examples where change doesn’t happen despite the promise of a positive outcome. Typically this is because people are resistant
to change, skeptical or simply too ‘busy’ to get involved. It is easier to implement change where the stakeholders involved actually
want to change things for the better, so let’s use desire as the second criterion. This addresses the emotional and political
elements of change.
Secret Sauce
• It is advantageous to draw in the sector only at the last stage rather than at
the beginning. A sector drawn at the outset will only tempt people to rate
all items so that they fall within the sector!
• For a more elaborate and systematic way of rating Do-ability the Team can:
– Breakdown the Do-ability criterion into its component parts (cost, effort and risk)
– Agree on the relative weighting of each in % terms
– Rate the items on each component
– Total the product of rating x weighting (see table on next slide)
– Transfer to chart
Weight factors that comprise Do-ability
COST EFFORT RISK Do-ability score
Weighting è 50% 30% 20%
Score Score Score
Item 1 1 2 2 1.5
Item 2 4 1 1 2.5
Item 3 4 1 1 2.5
Item 4 3 2 3 2.7
Item 5 1 2 2 1.5
Item 6 4 1 1 2.5
Item 7 4 4 1 3.4
Item 8 4 2 1 2.8
How to score:
1 = option uses a lot of that aspect, e.g. 1 under cost is very costly
4 = option uses little of that aspect, e.g. 4 under effort is easy to get done
