The Importance / Difficulty Matrix is a quad chart with one axis for importance and another axis for difficulty. It is usually classified under Patterns & Priorities within the UX Research techniques.
What are the benefits of using an Importance / Difficulty Matrix?
- It prioritizes large amounts of data quickly
- It identifies emergent issues, concepts and themes
- Helps teams to agree on priorities more objectively
Quick guide to creating an Importance / Difficulty Matrix:
- First, draw a quad chart, either on paper or the whiteboard, labelling the horizontal axis Importance and the vertical one Difficulty.
- Place items written on sticky notes horizontally from Low to High Importance and vertically, from Low to High Difficulty.
- Open the forum to all the team members and encourage discussion or priorities.
- As the team starts brainstorming, place items in the Low Difficulty / High Importance quadrant first, followed by the High Difficulty / Low Importance last.
Review these items at a later date to see if the importance / difficulty status has changed, or remove them altogether if they have been completed.
