impact-analysis-templates.md

Impact Analysis Templates

The full mapping exercise referenced from the Plan the Change section. Run this before a single word of communication goes out. Most RevOps teams skip it and pay for it in the productivity dip.

The five-dimension impact map

Work through every dimension for the change you are planning. Write a concrete answer in each cell. If a cell is blank, you have not finished planning.

1. People impact

Which teams are directly affected, and which are affected second-hand?
Who loses something: territory, named accounts, autonomy, compensation, status?
What new skills are required, and who does not have them yet?
Which existing habits have to break for the change to stick?
Who are the likely blockers, and who are the natural champions?

2. Process impact

Which existing processes change, end, or start?
Which handoffs between teams are affected (marketing to sales, sales to CS, AE to SDR)?
What SLAs change? Who owns the new SLA?
What happens during the transition overlap, when both old and new run at once?

3. System impact

Which tools need configuration changes?
What data needs migrating, and who validates it landed correctly?
Which automations, workflows, or integrations break when the change goes live?
What is the rollback plan if the configuration fails?

4. Data impact

Do any reporting definitions change (stage definitions, MQL criteria, win-rate maths)?
Will historical comparisons break? If so, how do you bridge old to new?
Which dashboards need rebuilding, and who signs off that the numbers reconcile?

5. Financial impact

What does the change cost to implement (tooling, time, external help)?
What is the revenue risk during the productivity dip?
What transition guarantees are needed to protect earnings (see below)?

Behavioural System Audit

Before changing anything, evaluate the current system for the behaviours it actually produces. Behaviour follows a formula:

BEHAVIOUR = f(Metrics, Visibility, Frequency, Compensation)

For each metric or process you are changing, write down:

What does the current system encourage?
What does it discourage?
What shortcuts or gaming does it quietly reward?

If the audit shows the comp, visibility, or cadence system pulls against the change you want, fix that first or change them together. A new process bolted onto an incentive that rewards the old behaviour will lose every time.

The ripple map

For every primary change, map the second-order and third-order effects. A territory change does not just affect AEs. It cascades:

First order: AE territory boundaries move.
Second order: pipeline reporting, SDR targeting, CS account assignments, comp attainment.
Third order: customer relationships disrupted, forecast continuity broken, manager span-of-control shifts.

Draw the cascade explicitly. The effects you do not map are the ones that surface as fires in week three.

Worked example: comp plan change

People: every AE loses predictability for one quarter; top performers feel most exposed; managers need to defend the new plan in 1:1s.
Process: deal-desk approval flow changes; quota-relief rules change; SPIFF mechanics retire.
System: CRM commission fields reconfigured; comp tool re-keyed; quota attainment dashboard rebuilt.
Data: historical attainment no longer comparable; you need a bridge view for the board.
Financial: hold-harmless guarantee for one quarter; budget for a 20 to 30 percent productivity dip for four to six weeks.

Output of this exercise

A one-page impact summary per change, the behavioural audit verdict (proceed, fix-first, or sequence), and a ripple map. Take all three into the Change Readiness Assessment before you commit to a launch date.