Quick wins

when brainstorming improvements a lot of ideas can be generated. Sometimes there are too many ideas to implement and you will have to prioritize them. One of the ways to prioritize your ideas is the use of an Effort/Benefit-Matrix. An Effort/Benefit-Matrix visualize potential solutions based on the required effort to implement them versus the benefits you expect from them.

Ideas with high effort and low benefits, the red area in the matrix, should not be implemented unless you have no other choice. On the other hand ideas with low effort and high benefits, the light green area in the matrix, are the preferred solutions for implementation. And then you have the area in between, the orange area, where the efforts are in relation to the benefits. These ideas could be implemented if you have not reached your goal yet with implementing the preferred, low-effort-high-benefits ideas. If you would consider implementing them, double-check that you did not make a mistake in your effort and benefits calculation. A wrong estimation could results quickly in bad results.

Intuitive people prefer the solution which has the highest benefit with the lowest effort associated with it. But do not forget the quick wins. Quick wins are ideas that can be implemented without much effort and will result in small benefits. A lot of small benefits together can have a big impact. On the other side you have to make sure that the sum of all the efforts does not overshadow the gained benefits. I often show the video below when I am teaching on quick wins, it shows how a lot of little things (ideas) can have a big impact:

There is another reason why to implement some quick wins first. Quick wins as the words itself say are implemented quickly, meaning that you can see the change and associated results also quickly. It can be used as a buy-in for the people involved in a larger improvement project. It will motivate them to work on the ideas which take longer to implement.