Understanding the Priority Matrix

What Is the Priority Matrix?

The Priority Matrix is a powerful feature in Zencity's Community Survey platform that helps cities and local governments prioritize improvements based on resident feedback.

It goes beyond satisfaction scores by assessing how much each community characteristic influences quality of life. Combining these two dimensions—satisfaction and impact—the Priority Matrix helps you focus your efforts where they matter most.

Why It Matters

Cities and counties often face tough choices when deciding which issues to prioritize. Satisfaction scores alone can be misleading—a community characteristic might receive low ratings but have little real influence on residents’ overall quality of life.

The Priority Matrix brings clarity by combining satisfaction with measured impact, helping you focus on what truly matters. It helps you:

• Identify which community characteristics most affect residents’ well-being

• Recognize and preserve high-performing, high-impact strengths

• Maintain visibility on all issues while directing resources to the areas with the greatest potential return

How It Works

The Two Axes of the Matrix:

• X-axis: Satisfaction – Reflects how residents rated each community characteristic. These scores come directly from their responses to the satisfaction questions in the survey.

• Y-axis: Impact on Quality of Life – Reflects how strongly each community characteristic predicts whether a resident reports a high overall quality of life. The higher the impact score, the more influence that characteristic has on residents' overall well-being, based on statistical analysis of their responses.

Zencity uses an advanced statistical model to determine impact, without asking residents directly about "importance." This allows for accurate prioritization while keeping the survey concise and efficient.

The Four Quadrants in the Priority Matrix

Each community characteristic is plotted into one of four categories:

The Priority Matrix offers city leaders a clear, resident-driven framework to guide planning and resource allocation. While it doesn’t account for all operational realities or political considerations, it provides valuable direction based on what matters most to residents. Think of it as a strategic lens—best used alongside your internal expertise, performance data, and policy goals.

Where You’ll Find It

• Community Survey dashboards  - visible at the bottom of the Summary tab

• Coming soon: Included in PDF summary reports for easier sharing

Using the Matrix to Drive Action

The Priority Matrix helps you go from insight to decision. For example, you might:

• Identify 2–3 high-impact challenges to address in your next strategic plan

• Use Strategic Strengths in public messaging to reinforce community trust

• Justify decisions in briefings, council meetings, or budget proposals

Talk with your Customer Success Manager about how cities are using the matrix in practice.

What Makes Zencity's Approach Unique?

Unlike other survey providers who ask residents to rate "importance" in extra questions, Zencity predicts impact on quality of life using existing responses. That means:

• No extra questions (shorter surveys)
• More reliable results (people often struggle to rate importance accurately)
• Deeper insights into what truly matters to residents

Our Statistical Methodology: Behind the Scenes

Zencity's approach to creating the Priority Matrix is both sophisticated and practical. Here's how we calculate the impact scores:

Data Preparation: We begin by ensuring all survey responses can contribute to our analysis. When residents skip questions, we use a technique called "KNN imputation" that thoughtfully fills these gaps by borrowing values from similar respondents. This maintains data integrity while maximizing the value of every submission.

Impact Calculation: We analyze how each community characteristic relates to quality of life using a statistical model called logistic regression. This model helps us understand which characteristics most strongly predict whether a resident reports high quality of life. 

Score Standardization: The raw statistical results are then transformed into standardized impact scores on a 0-100 scale. We apply a mathematical formula that accounts for both the strength of the relationship and the variability in responses. 

Matrix Construction: Finally, we plot each community characteristic on the matrix using its satisfaction score (x-axis) and calculated impact score (y-axis). The matrix divides into quadrants using median values for both metrics, ensuring a balanced distribution that adapts to your community's unique feedback patterns. This approach prevents outliers from skewing the results.

This data-driven approach ensures that you're focusing on what truly matters to residents, not just what they say is important.

Need Help Interpreting Your Matrix?

Reach out to your Customer Success Manager—they'll help you understand your results and answer any further questions.