The Important & Difficulty Matrix to find strategics

Our life is limited like our resources. On the other hand, there are many details to manage, many things to achieve and many summits to climb. There are important ones but also urgent ones. Some advice to ignore urgent ones and some advice opposite. In this article, I will explain to you a pragmatic way to overcome confusion and distinguish these fields.

The Story

I completed my long journey – 6 hours driving from home to hotel and just checked in then called my reseller in the region and informed him regarding my arrival. He mentioned an important company that started to look for Advance Engineering Technologies investment. My reseller saw a big opportunity and wanted to squeeze my agenda to arrange a meeting.

The following day, I entered the lobby of a Victorian-style factory. Fifteen minutes later, we met in the R&D Director’s office. The company excelled at manufacturing textile machinery. However, as their project load grew tremendously, they struggled to manage the volume, resulting in missed deadlines and delivery delays. Although they needed a digital transformation to streamline collaboration and reduce friction, they did not know how to begin. The initiative involved complex considerations and three distinct stakeholder levels: operators and designers, unit managers, and the C-suite. While this was not my first digital transformation consultation, it presented unique challenges—chief among them was distinguishing urgent tasks from truly important ones.

Focus on what matter

As a professional, identifying important ones and tracking them is relatively easy. Even though, I wrote an article about it as The Psychology of Efficiency: How Two Methods Eliminate Mental Noise If you wonder how to manage tasks and govern multitasking, you can find some good advice and practical method there but identifying importance as outcome of group decision, it is not that easy and requires some work. In his book Getting Things Done, David Allen mentions the nature of the work is constantly changing. This requires us to manage things effectively. 

Based on my advice, a workshop had been organized and employees from different departments attended. One of the methods that I used was the Important & Difficulty Matrix. After generating more than 50+ ideas about Digital Transformation of the company, we found ourselves in a position to eliminate some non-practical/applicable ideas.

The Matrix

In The Important & Difficulty Matrix, there are two axes; X-axis is for difficulty and Y-axis is for Importance. This 2×2 matrix is a very effective way to determine priorities. It helps to organize quickly, resolve different opinions and clearly help you to generate a roadmap to take action.

This method is a common one and you can find different versions of it on the net but I am using the Luma Institute Framework. As they stated “When you plot items according to both priorities, you and your team will likely arrive at a workable resolution.“ You can check out their page to find out more information.

How to apply this method

In order to apply this method effectively, I recommend these steps to consider:

1. Identify Ideas to Prioritize

Your first step should be identifying ideas. There are different frameworks to generate ideas. These could be round robin, open brainstorming or something else but you should have your items on your hand to determine prioritization by Importance/Difficulty Matrix.

2. Make 2×2 Matrix Poster

In order to position the ideas, you should use a chart which includes four quadrants. The X axis should be difficult and the Y axis should be important.

3. Gather Ideas Beside of Matrix

List the ideas nearby the matrix and organize them for use during the method. The ideas and matrix should be close enough to effectively view all of them and position ideas.

4. Position Ideas based on Difficulty

As humankind, we are eager to think about the difficulty of something. At this step, we can use this cognitive approach to our advantage. Start to position ideas in the middle of the matrix based on difficulty. You need to think about the relative difficulty of each task for each other.

5. Position Ideas based on Importance

After completing the difficult part, you can move on to positioning based on the important part. This time you need to keep the X axis position of ideas the same and move them based on Y axis regarding their relative importance.

6. Fine Tuning

You need to consider quadrants for positioning ideas and you can make adjustments to finalize the matrix.

Following these core steps helps manage collaborative sessions effectively. Because group dynamics can easily derail a 90-minute workshop, keeping a strict focus is vital to achieving the intended outcome. While advanced facilitation strategies are beyond the scope of this article, I will address them in future posts.

Digital Approach

If you want to do such a session online then I recommend you to use Miro or Mural. I used both of them for my sessions and I think both of them are quite good. In terms of technological functions, I think Miro has some advantages but in terms of methods, Structure Mural has more advantages. It is up to you but you should also use an online conference tool like Zoom or MS Teams. Also, share the agenda beforehand with participants and prepare the board as well as participants’ access.

Key Takeaways for Tomorrow

• You can use the Importance & Difficulty Matrix for your group collaboration and brainstorming session. 
• Importance & Difficulty Matrix is useful if you have ideas to prioritize. It is a pattern and prioritization method rather than idea generation. 
• You could use this method to 3 – 6 participants to prioritize ideas. 
• You can leverage tools like Miro, Mural, Zoom and MS Teams to facilitate a session for a virtual meeting.

References

• Allen, D. (2020). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (5th ed.). BKY Yayınları. 
• LUMA Institute. (2026). Importance/Difficulty Matrix.https://www.luma-institute.com/importance-difficulty-matrix/

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of any past, present, or future employer or affiliated organisation. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

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