Business casing everything does not make you more rigorous—it makes you less productive…
If your team is stuck in a “business-case-everything” culture—where even minor tasks require justification—take a step back and consider what you really need to business case and the jobs you should just do already.
Here’s a simple framework for deciding what to business case and what to tackle without overthinking:
Let's Break Down Each of the Four Quadrants
The graph above is pretty self-explanatory, but let's break it down.
🛠️ Low Effort/Low Impact:
A lot of ongoing optimization falls here—it’s the unsexy, no-glory stuff that keeps your operations running smoothly. (Examples: SEO fixes like 404s, internal linking, or optimizing blogs.) Neglecting these projects because they’re individually low impact is a huge mistake: Things start to feel janky all over.
Action: Don’t business case these. Operationalize chipping away at them. Spread the workload across teams.
🥳 Low Effort/High Impact:
Lucky you if you have these no-brainer projects lined up! Enjoy this time, because once these run out, everything gets harder.
Action: Just do them—and reap the rewards.
📈 High Effort/High Impact:
These are often “sexy” projects that promise recognition and advancement. But be careful: They can quickly become time sucks, and expected impact can erode over time. Example: A product change that feels innovative during planning but becomes table stakes before shipping.
Action: Business case carefully. Pay extra attention to timelines.
👎 High Effort/Low Impact:
These should be approached with caution. They often get pushed through for ego (rather than market or business) reasons. Unfortunately, rebrands can often fall into this bucket. But sometimes, these projects are unavoidable (like a site migration that unlocks future scaling opportunities).
Action: Only tackle with eyes wide open. Make a strong business case to evaluate trade-offs.
Hopefully, using these four categories can help break the “business-case-everything” cycle and help your team spend less time building decks that die on somebody's desk, and more time getting sh%$ done!
