Phase one - Impact design

What is it? 

Phase one is dedicated to impact design. This means that you will learn how to use an impact approach in:

1. Designing impactful projects. You’ll think about how to design projects that deliver the greatest possible value for your stakeholders, by thinking about the changes you want to create for them and for the wider society and/or economy through your actions.

2. Designing impact assessments. You can design the impact assessment that will help you to assess whether you have created meaningful change for your stakeholders, and get findings that will help you improve and make your work more sustainable in the longer-term.

Find out more in the video below.

Who is it for? 

Phase one is for anyone interested in impact!

When should I use it?

The Impact Playbook is useful for anyone at any project stage. It's particularly useful at the beginning of a project, before it even starts, because the tools and way of thinking can help you make a rationale case for your activity based on the changes you want your stakeholders to experience. It can help you plan your actions to deliver these changes, as well as to set up a framework in which you can evaluate to what extent these changes occurred in the short and medium term, and to think about how they contribute towards longer-term impact.

It is also useful for people who want to assess the impact of a project that has started or that has just happened - it might help understand what change you created as well as how to plan from the beginning for the next time.

You'll use each stage of the Impact Playbook at different times throughout your activity.

• Planning - Use the Impact Playbook to design an impactful and stakeholder-centred activity and/or to plan your impact assessment

  • Use Phase one tools to create an impactful and well thought through project proposal

  • Use Phase one tools to convince your colleagues to support your ideas for your activity

• Delivery - Use Phase one and two tools to help you make improvements as you go, focus more on the impact you want to deliver for your stakeholders, and plan your impact assessment

• At the end of project or when the project is almost finished - use Phase one tools to design and conduct an impact assessment or evaluation by looking back, and using what you have learned to make improvements to your next activities

If you want to assess the impact of your organisation, you might first look at your organisational mission statement, or if you don’t have one, use Phase one to help you get there. You might also be interested in Phase four’s guidance on Theory of Change, too.

What skills and competences do I (or my team) need?

• Workshop facilitation

• Coordination and project management

• Quick to learn

• Openness to new concepts and ways of thinking

Click on the page below to get an overview of what the workshop stages in Phase one look like.

What will the end result look like?

You’ll have an overview of the stakeholders who you create value for and you’ll know what impact you’d like to measure. You’ll be ready to get moving with Phase two, data collection.

Next steps

• Step 1. Get to know your 'stakeholders'

• Step 2. Build your Change Pathway