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Execution · Plan

Change impact assessment

Works out whose job actually changes, how much, and what they need to make it work. The unglamorous step between deciding and delivering, and the one whose absence explains most failed implementations.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
04 Plan
Works at
Business, Department
Maturity
Established SME → Large organisation
Time
One to two weeks

What it is

A structured assessment of who is affected by a change, how much, and what each group needs to work in the new way. It sits between design and delivery, and its absence is the most common explanation for a well-designed change that does not land.

Affected groups
Segmented by what actually changes for them rather than by department or headcount.
Nature of the change
What specifically differs: process, system, role, reporting line, location, skills required.
Magnitude
How much of their working day changes, how different the new way is from the old, and how well supported they are. Rated separately.
Readiness
Current capability and current sentiment. A large change for a willing, capable group is easier than a small one for an exhausted, sceptical one.
Requirements
What each group needs to succeed: training, tools, time, support, or simply a credible explanation.
Severity ranking
Which groups need active management rather than communication. Usually two or three, and they are not always the largest.
The mistake people makeAssessing impact without talking to the people affected produces a document that is confidently wrong. Frontline impact is routinely understated by project teams and management impact routinely overstated.
What it’s forThe strategy changes how people work and you need to know who is affected and how much.
What it’s not forNothing about anyone's job changes, which is rare and worth double-checking.

How you run it

  1. Define the future state concretelyWhich processes, systems and roles change and how. Assessing impact against a vague future produces vague impact.
  2. Assess by group, not by headcountTwenty people doing the same job are one impact group. Segment by what actually changes for them.
  3. Rate the size of the changeHow much of their day changes, how different the new way is, and how much support exists. All three matter and they are not the same.
  4. Ask the affected groups directlyImpact assessed from a project room is systematically wrong — usually understated for frontline roles and overstated for management.
  5. Turn impact into a specific requirementEach group needs particular training, tools, time or reassurance. Generic change communications are what you do when you have skipped this.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • A defined future state, specific enough to compare against
  • Current process and role documentation
  • Access to the people whose work changes

You’ll end up with

  • Impact per role and per group, rated
  • What each affected group needs — training, tools, time
  • The groups where impact is severe enough to need managing carefully

Runs well with

AI risk classification and governanceAlliance and partnership designAssumption logBackcasting