Prioritise ideas on a 2 by 2 grid.
Use it after a brainstorm. Score each idea for impact and effort, and it places them in quick wins, major projects, fill-ins and thankless tasks, ranked by impact per unit of effort.
10 is the biggest impact or the most effort. Paste three columns from Excel.
Ideas are ranked by impact ÷ effort. A score of 5 splits high from low on each axis.
The impact and effort matrix sorts a list of ideas into four boxes so a team can agree on what to do first.
From 14 ideas raised at a team meeting, four land as quick wins (such as labelling shelf locations), three are major projects (such as re-laying out the cell) and five are dropped, giving the team a clear 30-day plan.
Quick wins, major projects, fill-ins and thankless tasks (sometimes called time wasters).
A PICK chart (Possible, Implement, Challenge, Kill) uses a similar 2×2 idea with different labels.
Any number works, but 10 to 30 keeps the discussion focused.