Innovating with Impact
The Secret Behind Successful Product Planning
Once upon a time, in a bustling tech company named InnovateTech, there was a diligent and innovative Product Owner named Sarah. Sarah was known throughout the organisation for her ability to plan and execute successful product launches. One sunny morning, as she was sipping her coffee in the office cafeteria, her colleague Anna approached her with a curious expression.
"Sarah," Anna asked, "I've been wondering how you always seem to start your products on the right foot. How do you plan your products so effectively?"
Sarah smiled and thought back to the inception of her latest project. "Well, Anna," she began, "it all starts with Impact Mapping."
Anna looked puzzled. "Impact Mapping? I think I heard that name. But what is that?"
Sarah explained, "Impact Mapping is a technique that helps us align our goals and activities to deliver real value because it makes it easy to ask the right questions. Even more, being a structured visual method, it ensures everyone is on the same page."
Sarah grabbed a nearby napkin and began sketching a diagram. "You see," she continued, "we start with a clear business goal at the centre. It is the ‘why’ for all the subsequent work. Think about what you need for your product. I normally don’t start with ‘making money’ but try to be more practical. Do you need a big user base? Or good reviews? Think about it first. Then we identify the key actors or stakeholders who can help us achieve that goal." She sketched several smaller circles around the central goal and labelled them with the names of actors, such as "Customers," "Marketing Team," and "Development Team."
"These actors represent the people or groups that play a crucial role in our project. They represent our ‘Who?’” Sarah continued. "But here's the magic of Impact Mapping - we don't stop there." She drew more lines extending from each actor and added further details.
"Next," Sarah explained, "we determine the impacts or changes in behaviour we expect from these actors. These impacts are the high-level results that will contribute to achieving our goal." She drew arrows pointing from each actor towards specific impacts. For example, from "Customers," an arrow pointed to an impact labelled "Increased User Engagement. This is our ‘How?’“
Anna nodded in understanding. "So, we're defining what we want these actors to do to help us reach our goal," she remarked.
"Exactly," Sarah affirmed. "But we still need to bridge the gap between impacts and the work we need to do. That's where deliverables come in."
She drew more lines from the impacts, leading to’ Deliverables’ boxes. Deliverables represent the concrete things or features we need to create to help the actors create the impacts needed,” Sarah said as she connected arrows from impacts to deliverables like "User Interface Redesign" and "Mobile App Upgrade." Once the Impact Map is deemed good enough, I choose the most promising impacts and focus on one or a few.
Anna's eyes widened as she understood the simplicity and effectiveness of the approach. "That's brilliant, Sarah. But what about dealing with senior management? How do you get their buy-in?"
Sarah nodded thoughtfully. "Ah, that's the beauty of Impact Mapping," she said. "I always take such a diagram to my line management and explain my current thinking. They always provide valuable feedback. In the past, they have pointed out additional key actors we could involve. Or have raised a red flag about a particular impact, which we reviewed and normally gladly incorporated."
Anna was impressed. This helps get everyone on the same page and ensures we focus on what matters. “One more thing: how do you facilitate these sessions? Whenever I draw similar stuff on a whiteboard, it gets messy!”
Sarah then leaned in, sharing a secret with Anna. "I use an application called Vithanco. From day one, I capture discussions and agreements as diagrams in the app. I then send out the pretty diagrams via email to everyone. Vithanco keeps everything tidy and accessible for everyone involved in the project."
Anna nodded, realising that this approach ensured alignment and efficient product ownership - not only for new products.
From that day forward, Anna converted to Impact Mapping and started using Vithanco to plan her products. Sarah's wisdom and innovative approach continued to benefit the entire organisation, ensuring their efforts were always directed toward achieving meaningful outcomes and delivering products that made a real impact.