5 Essential Steps for Effective Impact Mapping in Product Development

Is creating an impact map important? If your answer is a yes to this question or if this question has bothered you, then you are not alone. An impact map plays a crucial role in aligning business objectives with product goals, bringing the team on the same page, and steering away from product failure. According to the research, 95% of products fail to achieve the desired impact on the customers.

In the above screenshot, we are showing a partial impact map that starts from left to right - > starting with the "business objectives" which is to increase the 3% market share in 2 years and then, what is/are the customer segment(s) or target audiences, for which this business objective is applicable (which are Startup Founders, Environment Conscious Consumer and Product Managers) and then for each of these customer segments, what impact your product can create to make them seen as 'leader/role model' in their industry.

In the below screenshots, you see another example of FoodieLoop - a food app in the Netherlands, meant to wow the healthy eaters,  and environment-conscious consumers by mapping each target audience segment with the desired set of "solution" and "deliverables" to help plan what to build next amidst many customer feedback from many sources, while not forgetting the business objective to make the product profitable and also customer-lovable.

This way product teams and organization can collaborate smarter and a lot better to know why we are prioritizing and defining one solution over another and what deliverables the team need to work towards successful timely delivery.

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So when should you start mapping impacts? Let’s go through these five use cases, which highlight the importance of impact mapping in product development.

Achieving Product-Market Fit

Organizations often go the feature-driven development route forgetting what pain point they initially wanted to address. As a result, all the features developed do not map back to the original business model and lead to product-market fit issues or bloated products with unnecessary features.

Creating an impact map before development helps you reverse engineer what features will solve customers’ pain points, align with the business objectives and achieve the product-market fit.

Avoiding Scope Creep

There’s nothing more frustrating to a product manager than witnessing the slow death of a healthy project to the beast known as scope creep. An impact map avoids product morphing and helps product teams maintain their focus on the initiative’s primary objective by mapping everything back to business objectives. If a feature doesn’t make it to the impact map, it probably doesn’t need to be in the product.

Prioritizing Feature Requests from Clients

Were you bombarded with a myriad of feature requests from clients? We have all been there. Being committed to building a product based on user feedback is a significant promise. Some features reach your roadmap, whereas the sad reality is that most of them don’t make it to your roadmap.

This is where an impact map comes into play. Create an impact map and let the customers see for themselves. The map will show how this feature aligns with the business goals and whether or not it will benefit the product.

Aligning Your team

A well-thought impact map brings everyone on your team in sync with what features are being implemented and why. The impact map also enables you and your team to plan your next sprint cycle by highlighting which features will most impact your customers.

Addressing Stakeholder Concerns

Last but not least, impact mapping helps you address stakeholders’ questions. The impact map demonstrates ties business goals to product development. An impact map is an excellent way to explain why certain features are being prioritized, how they will meet the user’s needs, and how this will increase the company’s revenue. Since impact mapping is visual and straightforward, it’s easy to digest. Plus, it’s 100% focused on goal attainment, making it believable.

As a product manager, you can use impact mapping to break from the feature-centric development trap. You can use impact maps during brainstorming sessions, and ongoing development when trying to figure out what to build next and bring everyone on the same page.

Looking into how you can create an impact map for your initiatives? Use Shorter Loop’s Impact Map Canvas to visualize, engage and plan strategically, delivering maximum value to your customers.