Prioritizing Initiatives for Maximum Impact

Passionate business leaders typically find it easy to draw up a long list of potential initiatives their teams could pursue as part of their strategy. As an example, think of the founders of a software company who can spin up a never-ending list of features they’d like to build for their product, each of which solve a customer pain point. 

But in any business, especially start ups, resources are limited, and initiatives (or features) need to be prioritized. In the words of McKinsey & Company, resources are often in “short supply, making it important to put [them] toward changes that will deliver the most value.” 

In order to put resources where they can deliver the most value, we recommend plotting each potential initiative on a value / ease matrix. You can consider “ease” to include a non-scientific mix of people, stress, financial investment, etc, or you may be more specific depending on your situation. Admittedly, this method is oversimplified and relies on a lot of assumptions, but it is a pragmatic way to quickly review the attractiveness of each potential initiative.

Too often, companies skip this step and end up working on a sub-optimal set of initiatives. McKinsey states that the “most attractive projects combine high value and low complexity. However, many companies will find that they are focusing on the least attractive projects (low value and high complexity).”

Plotting your initiatives on this matrix help you identify the right ones to pursue. By focusing limited resources where they will have the most value and highest ease (further to the top-right), you stand a better chance of achieving your overall ambition. 

And once you’ve identified your initiatives, stratsuma is here to help you define them in more detail and track their progress as they come to life.