Test and Learn Portfolio Tracker
The Test and Learn Portfolio Tracker is a strategic framework designed to help teams track, evaluate, and prioritise system-level changes and related initiatives. This tool enables organisations to map out hypotheses about system change, document ongoing work, maintain project backlogs, and collectively assess confidence levels to guide resource allocation and strategic decision-making.
What the Tracker Enables
The Test and Learn Portfolio Tracker enables teams to:
Visualise System Change: Map out the big, systemic changes your organisation aims to influence
Document Underlying Hypotheses: Break down assumptions and conditions required for change
Track Ongoing Work: Organise current initiatives according to their role in the system
Maintain Project Backlogs: Collect potential future projects in one accessible location
Evaluate Collective Confidence: Assess the team's confidence in different hypotheses to prioritise work. Use structured reflection to determine where to focus resources
How to Use the Tracker
Section 1: Capturing Big System Changes
In the first row, document the major systemic changes your team believes are necessary. These changes:
May be broad and difficult to measure
Should be observable
Can include speculative elements and assumptions
Example: "There is confidence in the range of electric vehicles; range anxiety has been eliminated"
Section 2: Unpacking Conditions and Hypotheses
In the second row, break down the conditions, hypotheses, assumptions, or evidence required for the big system changes to occur. This helps clarify what needs to happen for the desired change. Example (building on the electric vehicle example):
"Evidence on the range of battery life to give consumer confidence, communicated at purchase"
"A visible network of rapid chargers"
"A change in planning policy so that charging is available to all households"
Section 3: Mapping Current Work
Use this section to capture work currently underway. Organise initiatives according to the different roles your organisation plays in the system (e.g. influencing decision-makers, building evidence, prototyping). Position projects to correspond with the conditions and hypotheses identified in Section 2. This visualisation provides an overview of how your work is distributed across the system.
Section 4: Maintaining a Project Backlog
This section serves as a collaborative repository for potential future projects. Any team member can contribute ideas to this backlog, creating a pipeline of initiatives that could be implemented.
Section 5: Team Reflection and Confidence Assessment
Complete this section as a team to reflect on the evidence gathered through your activities. Assess each hypothesis based on criteria important to your organisation such as:
Impact on people and planet
Confidence in the hypothesis (how true or accurate it seems)
Importance for your organisation's specific skillset
Replicability of the hypothesis
Time criticality (what needs to happen soon versus longer-term) After discussion, update the team's confidence level for each area as high, medium, or low.
This assessment guides prioritisation: High confidence areas may warrant increased investment, low confidence areas might be deprioritised. Run this exercise multiple times throughout the year (e.g., quarterly) to reassess priorities and adjust strategy based on new information and changing circumstances.
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