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Value vs Effort Matrix Tool
Score each fix or idea by the value it brings and the effort it takes, and see the quick wins to start now, the major projects worth funding, and the thankless tasks to drop.
This tool also runs as a stage in two playbooks, which take you through several tools in order:
- Reduce customer churn Stage 5 of 5: which fixes come first Start at stage 1
- Prioritize product features Stage 3, the fast track Read the playbook
Not following the playbook?
What could you do?
List the fixes or ideas to weigh against each other.
Your list never leaves your browser
The fixes and their wording stay on your computer and in your progress file. To write the diagnosis, only the scores and evidence counts are sent to our server. How it works
Score each fix
1. Value: how much would it help?
Effort is best scored by whoever will do the work
When one person scores both, the matrix tends to confirm what they already wanted. Save your progress file and send it to them: they choose it under "Coming back?" on this page and carry on from here.
2. Effort: how much work would it take?
The matrix
Each number is a fix. Higher means more value; further right means more effort.
What to do with each fix
Save your progress
Download your progress file to continue from this point any time, on any computer: choose it under "Coming back?" at the start of the tool. Each new file includes everything so far, including the earlier stages when they are connected, so keep the latest one. Your list stays in this browser only until you close it.
Not saved yet.
Take your results with you
A PDF of the matrix, with what to do with each fix and the diagnosis. Ready to share with your team.
About the tool
Why it exists
You can't do everything, so choose on purpose
Any list of fixes is longer than the time and money to make them. The value vs effort matrix sorts the list into four groups: quick wins to start now, major projects to fund and plan, fill-ins for spare time, and thankless tasks to drop, however appealing they look. The last group is where the matrix earns its keep: it is the only one that takes work off the plan.
This tool works on its own, and as the last stage of our customer churn playbook, where it starts from the fixes on the journey map and judges value by the customers each fix would keep. For the method, see our guide to the value vs effort matrix.
The method
How the tool works
Four points, no middle. Value runs from "very little" to "a great deal", and effort from "hours" to "months". With no middle score, every fix lands on one side of each line, so each one gets a decision.
Value from customer evidence. In the playbook, each fix carries the conversations that named the problem it solves. A problem raised in three in ten conversations or more suggests "a great deal"; in fifteen in a hundred or more, "a lot". With the churn analysis connected, the tool also shows the most customers a month the fix could keep: the share of leavers who named the problem, times your monthly cancellations. It is a ceiling, not a forecast.
Two people, two scores. Value is best scored by whoever owns the result, effort by whoever will do the work. The progress file lets you hand the scoring over: save it, send it, and they carry on from where you stopped.
What leaves your computer. The fixes and their wording stay in your browser and your progress file. To write the diagnosis, the page sends our server only each fix's two scores and evidence counts, and the server keeps nothing.