APA: Doubling Strategic ROI from the Project Portfolio

Mike Welch, Strategy Realization Office (SRO) Lead at the American Planning Association (APA), set out to transform project prioritization. With TransparentChoice, APA shifted from opinion-led debates to a transparent, evidence-based process—building a more inclusive culture and doubling the portfolio’s strategic ROI.

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The Challenge

APA was investing significant time and resources into projects, but the impact on strategic goals was unclear. Long lists, politics, and bias made it difficult to direct resources to what mattered most.

As a national association with dozens of member groups, volunteer leaders, committees, and councils, APA needed a way to balance competing priorities and move from activity to outcomes. Crucially, value wasn’t purely financial; it had to reflect longer-term, organization-level outcomes that elected leaders and members could recognize.

As Mike Welch, Strategy Realization Office Lead, observed, APA needed to break free from opinion-driven debates and sprawling plans, replacing them with a transparent, criteria-driven process that aligned work to strategy and made results measurable.

"There are old-school political forces… we’d make a big list of everything we want to do and add and add and add." 3:02
"We would have 144 items on the two-year strategic plan… it was impossible to see what progress was being made." 3:16
"Dozens of member groups and volunteer leaders… everyone fighting for the same modest-sized piece of the pie." 3:28
"We started from such a hot mess that we wouldn’t even be able to tell you if we’ve doubled… there’s so much chaos… we don’t have a list." 3:42

Our Approach

APA introduced TransparentChoice to bring structure and clarity to project prioritization. Starting in 2021, Mike Welch guided the board and leadership team through a new process that replaced politics and guesswork with transparent, evidence-based decisions.

The first step was to define and weight criteria that reflected APA’s strategic goals. With these in place, executives scored projects against the agreed criteria, creating a clear picture of which initiatives advanced strategy and which drained resources. This real-time scoring exposed pet projects and shifted the conversation from “who supports what” to “what delivers value.”

The process was collaborative and engaging. By giving everyone a voice and focusing on evidence, APA built trust across stakeholders. Methodologically, the team applied the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) within TransparentChoice to weight criteria and evaluate projects consistently. What had once been a political negotiation became a cultural fit: transparent, inclusive, and grounded in strategy.

"The idea of everyone having an online tool where everyone can equally share their voice… planners are very egalitarian… they like everyone to be involved in the process. And so it was appealing in that sense." 6:07
"The board really loved to see the outcomes and the weighting of the criteria—it all intuitively made sense to them." 6:34
"This software removes the squeaky wheel… everybody has a vote and an equal voice, using real criteria aligned with the organization’s strategic goals." 8:16
"Using AHP—analytic hierarchy process—removes the drama, the politics, and the squeaky wheels, and focuses decisions on priorities and criteria the organization develops." 9:26

The Results

The impact became visible quickly—and strengthened as the new approach matured. APA gained a clear, prioritized portfolio aligned to strategy and cut low-value work.

With TransparentChoice, decisions became faster, less political, and more widely supported. Leaders could see at a glance which initiatives advanced the mission, and teams felt included. The shift built trust and reduced friction, replacing debate with collaboration and giving the organization confidence to see work through.

Most importantly, APA reports doubling the strategic ROI/impact of its project portfolio (≈150–200%). By focusing resources on the right initiatives, the organization saved time and money—including retiring an international outreach program that wasn’t delivering—and proved the value of disciplined, transparent prioritization.

"Now I think at least double — or 150% — the impact, because we can describe it, we can point to it… and see and feel the results through the outcomes of these initiatives." 2:43
"What we have today is a real intense feeling of satisfaction and confidence that when we say we’re gonna do something, we have the ability to see it through and do it." 5:09
"This is the thing that has saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars in an international outreach program that wasn’t creating much value." 7:19