Dear all,

late again. Teaching my class at Rosenheim University online took a bit longer today…

Back to Weekend Reading: this week I was witness to a few intense discussions that were majorly demands/features-driven. To my mind rather pointless. Ultimately, everybody wanted a similar if not the same outcome, but the connection was unclear and contested.

I had to think of something Malcolm Gladwell said (albeit in a very different context): „Once you don’t just start at the beginning, your life gets so much simpler.“

For that reason I would like to introduce you to a technique, that I find immensely helpful when it comes to rationalizing feature requirements: Impact Mapping.

Starting from the intended outcome, it extends back from there; finally identifying features that should have a direct impact on achieving the goal and a clear rationale for how they will do so.

Here are some resources that should get you started swiftly:

A good explanation

including an actionable how-to by ProductPlan

Click to view!

A helpful 7-minute video

on the subject by RedHat
Click to view!

The official impactmapping.org site

with loads of additional resources

Click to view!

(Slightly modified, I also use Impact Mapping for the creation of OKRs.)

Time to finally start into the rainy weekend.

Have a good one,
Godehard