Impact Mapping solo
Discovering Clarity Through Personal Practice
I’ve been meaning to do some improvements to the Bytesize Architecture Sessions’ website to integrate what I’ve learned lately, but I wasn’t clear on how to focus on when and how. That changed when I saw Krisztina Hirth’s awesome session: Impact Mapping: The Secret Sauce at Virtual DDD.
While impact mapping is traditionally presented as a collaborative team technique, I find that it’s always valuable to also model things solo. What struck me most was the great value it brought in focussing on outcomes and personas rather than features, making everything measurable by default.
I discovered it works brilliantly to do some work one day, then step away and come back a few days later with fresh eyes. Repeating this cycle several times allowed ideas to percolate and assumptions to surface naturally.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of solo impact mapping has been its effect on goal clarity. I’m not 100% sure my goal is good, but the mapping process keeps making me think about it, which feels valuable in itself. The iterative questioning allows me to refine every section of the map with each mapping session. I can gradually build a more robust strategic foundation.
Below you can see the current state of my impact map for Bytesize Architecture Sessions, I expect it can use more iterations.
Please let me know if you see ways the map can be improved.
Resources
- Brilliant talk by Krisztina Hirth Impact Mapping: The Secret Sauce at Virtual DDD
- Gojko Adzic’s book “Impact Mapping: Making a Big Impact with Software Products and Projects” which provides the foundational theory.
- Mark Dalgarno’s comprehensive guide offers excellent practical insights from an active practitioner’s perspective.
- LogRocket’s impact mapping guide provides a product management lens on the technique.
- For teams seeking maximum return on investment, Mark Levison’s detailed exploration demonstrates how to extract the most value from the process.