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Impact / effort

presetdecideplanconverge

Trade two axes off against each other and place items.

A preset of matrix-2x2. Attribution: Traditional. Licence: idea; no restriction.

Variants

  • default

Data fields

The fields a spec's page can set for this component (see switchback show impact-effort --json):

  • x_axis
  • y_axis
  • quadrants

Grounding

Helps: when choosing what to do first among many options; it inherits the two-by-two's untested diagram craft, so treat each placement as an estimate to question

Backfires: when effort is placed from optimistic guesses, since people routinely underestimate how long their own tasks take, so supposed quick wins crowd the low-effort side

  • DPlacing items on a spatial layout defined by two explicit dimensions makes their relative standing on both dimensions easier to judge and compare than a list or table does.Larkin & Simon (1987)
  • CItems placed inside the same bounded region are perceived as belonging together, even against other grouping cues, so labelled zones make category membership readable at a glance.Wagemans et al. (2012)
  • DBreaking a task into its ordered component steps before predicting when it will be done reduces optimistic bias in completion-time predictions.Buehler, Griffin & Ross (1994)

What the grades mean