ASL Matrix
The ASL Matrix sorts initiatives by impact and feasibility into Achievable, Stretch, Low Hanging Fruit and Avoid, so a team spends its next quarter on the initiatives worth the effort.
Two axes cross to form four quadrants, impact climbing upward and feasibility running out to the right.
Reach for this when…
- The initiative list is longer than the team can execute and everything is labelled 'high priority.'
- Ambitious ideas keep beating out quick wins that would build momentum.
- You need one page that shows why some pet projects are being dropped.
How to run it
- List every initiative under consideration, however small.
- Score each one on impact toward the strategic goal.
- Score each one on feasibility given current resources, skill and time.
- Plot into Achievable, Stretch, Low Hanging Fruit or Avoid.
- Fund Achievable and a couple of Low Hanging Fruit first; hold Stretch for later; drop Avoid.
A worked example
Situation. Moussa Diop ran a 40-truck haulage firm in Dakar, Senegal, with a list of eleven 'priority' projects and one operations manager to deliver them.
Applied. He and his managers scored each project on impact and feasibility. A telematics overhaul landed as Achievable, a driver app rebuild as Stretch, a fuel-card switch as Low Hanging Fruit, and a rebrand as Avoid.
Result. The team shipped the telematics project in ten weeks and shelved the rebrand indefinitely, freeing the operations manager for the Stretch project the following quarter.
The catch
Impact and feasibility scores are usually guesses dressed up as numbers, and the matrix rewards whoever argues hardest in the scoring meeting. Feasibility also shifts as capability grows, so today's Stretch is next quarter's Achievable - the matrix needs revisiting, not filing.
A 'Low Hanging Fruit' that eats a scarce specialist's whole week isn't actually low cost. Check who does the work, not just how easy it sounds.