Soooooo, You’ve Identified Your Benefits . . . Now What?

This session will provide an expose on benefits profiling, covering the practical steps of moving beyond benefits identification through to validation, categorisation, and quantification.

Participants will learn how to utilise a benefits map to create benefit profiles and will be given guidance on benefits categorisation with practical examples.

Delegates will leave the session with:

• a deeper understanding of the difference between intermediate and end benefits
• practical experience of how to use a benefits map to inform benefits profiling
• knowledge of different benefit categories and how to deal with ‘cost avoidance’, ‘cost efficiency’, ‘time saving’ and other flavours of benefits
• some understanding of how to answer the common question of “should we be measuring all the benefits?”

Recorded Session

Introduction: Beyond Identification

In the world of PMO, benefits identification is just the start. The real challenge, and opportunity, lies in what happens next: profiling, categorising, validating, and quantifying those benefits so they’re actually meaningful to the organisation.

At a recent PMOLearn! session hosted by NATS’ Jess Richardson and Steve Blades, we explored the practical steps to take once you’ve got your benefits map in hand. This article distils the key takeaways from that workshop, including real-world examples, templates, and a few exercises you can try with your own teams.

Workbook Download

Benefits Maps

Before you get into this session about Benefits Profiles, you might want to take a look at the previous session that Jess and Steve did at the PMO Conference a couple of years back.

>> Take a look at the session here

What We Learnt

We kicked off with a definition:

“Benefits are a measurable outcome of change that is perecived as positive by a stakeholder”

Disbenefits are the outcomes that are perceived as negative by a stakeholder.

>> Take a look at the exercise case study we use throughout this session

1. Benefits Maps

We got straight into a reminder about benefits maps and how they form the foundation for building benefit profiles. It’s a visual tool to trace the logical connection from project outputs to strategic objectives.

He encouraged learners to use the map to distinguish between intermediate and end benefits, helping teams ensure that every benefit has a clear line of sight to a strategic goal.

2. Intermediate vs. End Benefits: Understanding the Difference

• Intermediate benefits are stepping stones – enablers that contribute towards the bigger, strategic outcomes.

• End benefits are what stakeholders and executives really care about – they’re the tangible results aligned with strategic objectives.

“Think of intermediate benefits as the scaffolding and end benefits as the finished building.”

Example from the Case Study:
In a scenario tackling poor reporting in an organisation, improved data assurance might be an intermediate benefit, while improved decision-making becomes the end benefit.

3. Financial Vs Non-Financial Benefits

The distinction between financial and non-financial benefits was a key theme, and rightly so. PMO professionals often face pressure to show the “bottom line,” but the session made it clear that not all value is monetary, and trying to force it can backfire.

4. The Benefits Profile Template

We were given handouts for the session and the template (click to open the PDF) shows the benefits profile template.

The column headers include:

• Benefit Description

• Owner

• Stakeholders

• Measurement Method

• Baseline & Target

• Realisation Date

• Evidence Source

• Assumptions

The purpose of the benefit profile is to:

• Describe benefits and disbenefits in more detail
• Define the expected change in value
• Articulate how the project/programme will measure and report on its progress.
• Provide a description of the improvement upon realisation
• Give an identification of individuals responsible for delivery of the benefit
• Show how benefits will be measured and reported
• Give an indication of the change management effort that may be required to support benefit delivery.

4. What Makes a Good Benefits Profile?

A good benefit profile will identify, describe and analyse the benefit, confirming the Benefits Map, and allowing the building of a detailed Benefits Realisation Plan

A Benefit Profile should pass four critical validation tests:

1.Description – Sets out the precise nature of the benefit
2.Observation – Describes the verifiable differences noticeable between pre- and post-implementation
3.Attribution – Confirms that the benefit is directly attributable to this project, where in the organisation the benefit will arise and who is accountable and responsible for delivering the change
4.Measurement – Describes how and when the achievement of the benefit will be measured

DOAM is the acronym to remember!

5. Exercise on DOAM

Learners were asked to use their Benefits Profile templates and create a profile for either the financial or non-financial benefit information. You can see the worked examples in the [download available here]

6. Over-Monetisation of Benefits

“Sometimes there is a tendency to ‘over monetise benefits’”

Jess and Steve explored several reasons for this:

• Assigning monetary value to non-financial impacts like brand value, time saved, or employee morale can feel forced or artificial.
• Unrealistic assumptions in financial models (e.g. high uptake, low discount rates).
• Optimism bias, where supporters genuinely believe in best-case scenarios.
• External pressure or political influence, leading to inflated figures to win buy-in.

The lesson naturally took us onto tangible and intangible benefits:

Another way to think about the hierarchy of benefits in order to help us with profiling is to split benefits into tangible and intangible categories at the top level. Tangible benefits can usually be measured quantitatively i.e., in numerical terms. Intangible benefits can usually be measured qualitatively i.e., in descriptive terms.

Beneath that we can further split the ‘tangible’ category into Definite/Expected/Logical. These relate to the degree to which you can predict the value of the benefit arising from the project. The further down the list, the more difficult to predict with confidence and therefore probably the more difficult to prove realisation.

6. Measurement

There are 4 critical validation tests for good benefits profiles and the 4th was being able to describe how and when the achievement of the benefit will be measured.

This is often the hardest part about creating a robust Benefit Profile. How for example would you go about measuring the benefit on the Map ‘Improved Decision Making’? Do you think it is worth bothering to measure this?

“All Benefits have Value but Not everything of value is a benefit”

7. Finally.. Should We Be Measuring All Benefits?

This classic question sparked great discussion. The conclusion?

“Not all benefits need to be measured to the same degree. Prioritise those that are strategically critical or where real risk exists.”

Framework Tip: Classify benefits by their significance (critical, major, minor) and assign effort accordingly.

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