Northgate Council digital backlog
Effort impact matrix slide with ten projects placed
An effort and impact matrix is only useful when effort is measured rather than felt, because a team's sense of difficulty tracks familiarity more than work. This one places a digital backlog for Northgate Council, a fictional council.
What is on the slide
- Quick Wins, high impact and low effort
- Online dog registration, 3 weeks. Bin day SMS reminder, 2 weeks. Pay a fine by card, 4 weeks.
- Major Projects, high impact and high effort
- One login for 11 services, 34 weeks. Permit lodgement rebuild, 28 weeks. Payments to one gateway, 22 weeks.
- Fill Ins, low impact and low effort
- Retire the fax number, 1 week. Merge two contact forms, 2 weeks.
- Thankless Tasks, low impact and high effort
- Rewrite the 2011 intranet, 26 weeks. Custom map for 40 users, 18 weeks.
- Axes
- Effort runs across from low to high, impact runs down from high to low, and every project name carries its build weeks so the horizontal position can be checked.
When this is the right slide
A labelled effort and impact grid suits a backlog conversation where every item has a build estimate and the decision is which work to fund in the next planning period.
What to swap it for
Diagram: Priority Pyramid with Callouts. Swap to the priority pyramid when the audience needs a single ranked order rather than four groups, such as a funding submission that has to name what comes first.
What this slide shows
A title reads Northgate Digital Backlog, with a framing line saying ten projects for 2027 scored on build weeks against how many residents each one reaches. A two by two grid fills the slide with four preset quadrant names. Quick Wins, top left, high impact and low effort: online dog registration, 3 weeks; bin day SMS reminder, 2 weeks; pay a fine by card, 4 weeks. Major Projects, top right, high impact and high effort: one login for 11 services, 34 weeks; permit lodgement rebuild, 28 weeks; payments to one gateway, 22 weeks. Fill Ins, bottom left: retire the fax number, 1 week; merge two contact forms, 2 weeks. Thankless Tasks, bottom right: rewrite the 2011 intranet, 26 weeks; custom map for 40 users, 18 weeks. The axes are labelled outside the grid, effort running from low to high across the top and impact from high to low down the side.
When this is the right slide
Use it when a backlog has to be cut down to a fundable programme and the audience includes people who did not write it. Council and government digital plans, product roadmaps, operational improvement lists and internal platform work all fit, because each has more candidate projects than capacity and each item can be estimated. The grid is also a good way to show that the cheap work and the important work are not the same work, which is the conversation most backlog reviews are avoiding. It is the wrong slide when the items have not been estimated, since the horizontal axis then reflects opinion, and wrong when everything is genuinely mandatory, such as a compliance programme, where sequencing depends on deadlines rather than on value.
How to adapt it
First, define impact once and write the definition on the slide. Residents reached works for a council; revenue at risk, hours saved or people affected work elsewhere. What matters is that all ten items are scored the same way, because a matrix mixing three definitions of impact cannot be argued with or acted on. Second, put the effort figure in the item name rather than relying on position alone. The eye reads left to right approximately, and a stated 34 weeks is precise in a way a position never is. Third, keep quick wins genuinely quick. A quadrant holding a nine month project because it is popular destroys the meaning of the axis, and the first person to notice will discount the whole grid. When the audience needs a single ordered list rather than four groups, a ranked pyramid with callouts is the honest alternative, since it forces a first, a second and a third.
What makes this slide work
Every project carries its build estimate
3 weeks, 2 weeks, 34 weeks, 26 weeks. The number is what makes the horizontal position checkable, so a reader who disagrees with a placement is disagreeing with an estimate rather than with a feeling. Matrices that plot effort without stating it invite the argument that the team simply prefers the work it finds interesting.
Impact is defined as residents reached
The framing line says the projects are scored on build weeks against how many residents each one reaches. One definition, applied to all ten. Without it, impact means revenue to one person in the room and risk reduction to another, and the vertical axis stops carrying information. A custom map for 40 users is low impact under that definition, which is the point.
The thankless quadrant names work in progress
Rewriting the 2011 intranet at 26 weeks and a custom map for 40 users at 18 weeks are both plausible projects somebody has asked for. Placing them where they fall, rather than quietly leaving them off the slide, is what makes the matrix a decision aid. The quadrant name does the arguing so the presenter does not have to.
Questions people ask
How should effort be scored for this kind of matrix?
In a unit the team already uses and can defend, most often build weeks or person weeks. Whatever the unit, it should be the same for every item and visible on the slide. Scoring effort out of five is quicker but it hides the difference between a two week job and a thirty four week programme, which is the distinction the grid exists to show.
What counts as impact on a public sector backlog?
Usually people reached, transactions moved online or hours of staff time released. Pick one and state it. Residents reached is used on this slide, which is why a custom map serving 40 users sits in the low impact half despite being technically interesting. The definition does most of the work that the axis is credited with.
How many items belong on an effort and impact matrix?
Eight to twelve. Ten is comfortable. Fewer than eight and a list would do; more than twelve and the quadrants become unreadable at presentation size. If the backlog has forty items, score them all in a spreadsheet and bring the ten that are being argued about onto the slide.
What should happen to the thankless quadrant?
It should be stopped, reduced in scope or funded with eyes open. Naming it on the slide is what forces the conversation. Some thankless work is genuinely unavoidable, such as replacing an unsupported system, and in those cases the honest move is to say so rather than to move the item into a friendlier quadrant.
When should this be split into two slides?
When the major projects need sequencing. Three items at 22, 28 and 34 weeks cannot all start at once, so a second slide with a simple timeline and dependencies answers the question this grid raises. Keep the matrix for the selection and let the timeline carry the order.
How should this slide be presented out loud?
Name the three quick wins and the quarter they would land in, then say which major project is being funded and what is being dropped to pay for it. The grid can be read in silence. The value of the session is the trade off between the 34 week login project and everything else, and that needs the time the narration would take.
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