Form
One pager in wiki, Notion, or Markdown with header (date, owner), initiative sentence, purpose, impact, stakeholders, success criteria, risks/assumptions, smallest next step with owner/date, and a final recommendation (go, pause, no go).
RunsheetDecision Making
Impact Filter
ComplexityLow
Time20-45 min
Participants1-6
FormatWorkshop + async
MaturityEstablished
01
Preparation
What needs to be ready before start
Materials
One-pager template with sections Initiative, Purpose, desired Impact, stakeholders, success criteria, risks/assumptions, smallest next step; timer; link list to relevant data or prior work.
People / roles
Initiator or proposed owner of the initiative; one sparring partner (manager, coach, experienced colleague); optional stakeholder representative if initiative has cross-functional impact.
Pre-read
Proposal in one to three sentences; trigger (problem, opportunity, instruction); known time or budget frame; previous attempts or existing workarounds.
Time needed
20-45 min
Setup
Keep template open. Proposal as header. Seven sections visible and empty. Rule: every section requires a written answer; skipping one means the initiative is not ready.
02
Core question
The one question this method answers
Is this initiative worth starting now, and if so what is the smallest next step?
03
Flow
Marker: Minute
| Step | Duration | Action | Hint |
|---|---|---|---|
10-5 min | 5 min | Formulate the initiative in one sentence. Purpose: why now, why at all. If the purpose requires more than one sentence, refine it. | Who cannot explain the purpose in one sentence has not thought it through. A vague purpose leads to vague success criteria. |
25-15 min | 10 min | Desired impact: what change in the world happens if the initiative succeeds. Stakeholders: who benefits, who carries effort, who could block. | Impact is outcome, not output. "We built X" is not impact. "X customers spend Y less time on Z" is. |
315-25 min | 10 min | Success criteria: how to recognize success, ideally measurable. At least three criteria, and one outside our own perception (data, external signal). | Criteria such as "it feels better" are not testable. If no measurability is found, the initiative is premature or exploratory and needs a learning phase first. |
425-35 min | 10 min | Risks and assumptions: what must be true for impact to happen? What could go wrong? Identify top 3-5 assumptions and mark one as "falsifiable in 2 weeks". | If no risks can be named, they were not actively searched. A common blind spot is: "no risks" means lack of analysis, not real security. |
535-45 min | 10 min | Smallest next step: what can be done in 1-2 weeks that makes success or failure visible. Fix owner and date. | If the first step cannot be completed in 14 days, the initiative is scoped too large. The step must test an assumption or validate a stakeholder, not refine concept only. |
04
Artifact
What comes out at the end
Versioning / ownership
One entry per initiative with date. On reactivation or rebooting, create a new version and keep the previous rationale. After completion, add status (implemented, rejected, pivoted).
Tool alternatives
- Notion template with section columns
- Confluence page with header table
- Markdown in docs folder
- Linear or Asana project with custom fields
impact-filter-working-template.md
Compact working template for Impact Filter with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.
Impact Filter Checklist
- Goal and context clarified
- Input material gathered
- Participants and roles named
- Execution prepared according to the runsheet
- Output artifacts created
- Impact Filter updated
- Success Criteria updated
- Next Step updated
- Open questions documented
- Next step set with owner and date
05
Example output
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
impact-filter-beispiel.md
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
Impact Filter — Should Team A replace an internal knowledge tool? (19.05.2026)
Owner: @anna (Engineering Manager). Sparring partner: @marcus (Director).
Initiative: Replace the self-hosted wiki tool with Notion for all engineering teams.
Purpose: The current wiki has been unusable since Q1 (search broken, editor slow), engineering documentation decays, new team members find nothing.
Desired Impact: Engineering employees find documentation in under 60 seconds (today often not at all), new hires lose less than 2 hours per week to documentation search.
Stakeholders: 78 engineers, IT for migration, compliance for data protection check, Finance for license costs (estimated EUR 9k/year).
Success criteria:
- Median documentation search time is <60 seconds (measurement: monthly eng-survey).
- At least 70% active Notion usage in engineering after 90 days.
- Compliance audit with no critical findings.
Risks/assumptions:
- Assumption: Notion meets data protection requirements for internal docs (no client secret data involved). Falsifiable by 28.05.2026 via DPA review.
- Risk: Migration effort higher than 2 weeks of one person. Mitigation: start with Discovery team as pilot with smallest documentation base.
- Risk: Adoption, because many people prefer Markdown in the repository.
Smallest next step: DPA review and pilot plan with Discovery team within 14 days (Owner @anna, by 02.06.2026).
Decision: Go for pilot.
06
Pitfalls
Recognize symptoms and steer against them
Trap
Output instead of impact
Symptom
The impact section describes the delivered artifact ("we introduced Notion") but not the effect.
What to do
Ask "and then what?" until a visible external change appears. If that cannot be answered, the problem has not been fully worked through.
Trap
Criteria without measurement
Symptom
Success criteria are soft ("team is happier"), not verifiable.
What to do
Require at least one criterion with data source (survey, tool metric, observation). If none is available, the initiative is not mature or the goal is intentionally exploratory.
Trap
No risks
Symptom
Everyone says no risks and presents every assumption as certain.
What to do
Write down at least three plausible failure modes. If none are found, involve an external sparring partner who actively seeks weaknesses.
Trap
First step too big
Symptom
Smallest next step is "prepare concept" or takes 8 weeks.
What to do
The next step must close within 14 days and test at least one assumption or validate a stakeholder. It is not about doing work, but learning.
Trap
Filter as ceremony
Symptom
Initiator fills all sections to obtain approval, but does not use the answers later.
What to do
The sparring partner should ask open questions, not yes/no. When done genuinely, 20-30% of initiatives should conclude with "not now" and this is the method's value.
07
Stop criteria
Done signals checkable in under a minute
The initiative is already politically decided and the filter is theatre.
The initiator has no mandate to start, and the decision lies elsewhere; a recommendation is the better artifact.
Purpose is unclear because the underlying problem is unclear; first build problem understanding.
The initiative is urgent and reactive (incident, crisis), and filter overhead slows the response.
No sparring partner is available, so self-checking alone is usually insufficient.
The outcome needs a full business case with ROI, then detailed proposal is needed and this is only a pre-step.
Finished the runsheet?
Go to the profile for purpose, similar methods, and sources or continue to the next method in the catalog.