What does good Public Affairs Prioritisation look like?. The Internal Side of Public Affairs (37).

Alan Hardacre, PhD

Co-Founder Advocacy Academy, Advocacy Strategy

May, 2025

I often post about the need for Public Affairs to prioritise and quantify its work. I also work regularly with clients to do this – and I get many DMs about exactly how you do it. So here’s a tried and tested approach I use:

1. Collect everything

Start by mapping all issues — regulatory, political, reputational, market-shaping. Cover things that are happening now to those in the future. Use internal intelligence, monitoring tools, and stakeholder input (like your Trade Associations) to build a comprehensive issue list. 

Output: An issue list (grouped by categories if possible) with a clear sense of timing.

2. Establish your own clear criteria for prioritisation

Not all issues are equal. Score each one by:

·      Business impact (revenue, cost, operations)

·      Likelihood (based on policy signals and political momentum)

·      Expected impact on business date (immediate vs long-term – and great for planning)

·      Ability to influence (what leverage do you really have?)

You can use other metrics but to start keep it simple.

Output: A clear grid with your issues down one side and a column for each criteria.

3. Quantify the impact

For priority issues, work with internal teams (market access, strategy, commercial, finance) to estimate the business value at stake—both upside and downside. You will need to make some assumptions and likely start with ranges – but even rough numbers are better than none and as you get better you will refine your approach – and your numbers.

Output: A sheet of assumptions that leads to financial impact ranges.

4. Visualize and translate for execs

Turn your analysis into business language. Use risk heatmaps, opportunity dashboards, and traffic-light summaries using your own internal business strategy and language to show the clear commercial and financial relevance. Focus on;

·      Where the biggest threats and wins lie and when they will impact the business

·      Where Public Affairs can change the outcome (or not)

·      What resource or decision is needed to deliver

This process requires internal alignment and discussion – and, if done well, should take about 3-4 months. In my next post I will dig deeper into the quantification part of this process – and look at some examples.

If you want to discuss how you could do this let me know. If you have any tips or tricks please share them below so we can all learn together.