Ever found yourself in a meeting where everyone's nodding along to goals and objectives, but half the room is thinking about lunch? Well, that's where impact mapping comes in to save the day!

It’s a visual planning technique that connects high-level business goals with actionable steps, ensuring that every effort you and your team make, actually drives results.

Impact mapping is like creating a mind map, but instead of random thoughts, we're connecting the dots between our business goals and the people who can make them happen. It starts with a big goal at the center - let's say "becoming the Netflix of educational content" (dream big, right?). And this is the WHY.

From there, we branch out to answer three essential questions, and I promise they're more interesting than your typical project management questionnaire. First, we ask "WHO?" - who are the players in this game? These are your stakeholders, from end-users to developers, from marketing sircle to customers.

Next comes the "HOW?" - how can these people help us reach our goal? Maybe users can spread the word about your platform, developers can make the interface smoother, and the marketing team can make your product more popular than my cats videos.

Then we dive into the "WHAT?" - what specific things do we need to build, create, or change to support these behaviors? We're talking about actual features, improvements, or initiatives that will make things happen.

Creating an impact map is a collaborative party. You gather your stakeholders in a (virtual?) room, and start building connections together. The beauty is that everyone gets to contribute.

However, impact mapping has both powers and limitations.

It's fantastic at creating alignment , and it also helps prioritize work because you can clearly see which actions will have the biggest impact on your goal. However sometimes it can be challenging to get all the right people in the room together, and maintaining and updating the map can be daunting. There's also the risk of the map becoming too complex. The key to success is keeping it simple and focused: start with one clear goal and build from there.