APA: From Too Many Projects to a Clear, Aligned Backlog
Mike Welch, Strategy Realization Office Lead at the American Planning Association, faced the challenge of overloaded IT and operational backlogs with no clear way to prioritize. Using TransparentChoice, the board and executive team cut pet projects, aligned around what mattered most, and built a clear backlog that delivered focus and value.
The Challenge
The American Planning Association (APA) was facing overloaded IT and operational backlogs with no clear way to prioritize. Too many initiatives were competing for attention, creating confusion and wasted effort.
With a diverse, non-executive board, discussions often reflected silos or strong opinions rather than shared priorities. This made it difficult to reach consensus, and pet projects regularly slipped through. Strategic initiatives risked being delayed or overlooked, leaving the board frustrated and progress slow.
For Mike Welch, Strategy Realization Office Lead, the task was to introduce a way of working that balanced demand, eliminated low-value work, and built alignment across leadership. Only then could APA focus on the projects that truly advanced its mission.
"We didn’t have an existing capacity within the organization to prioritize all the things we were doing — a lot of operational activities, a lot of ideas for strategic projects, but no real way to assess those or sort through them beyond traditional management structures and silos" 0:27
"There’s lots of internal energy and ideas for things that could become part of the strategy… I think we need to create a process and get a little more mature about how we take those concepts from ideation to what’s going to be a viable project as part of the portfolio." 5:19
Our Approach
APA introduced TransparentChoice to bring structure and transparency to prioritization. The process began with the board defining and weighting the criteria that reflected APA’s strategic goals.
The executive team then scored projects against these criteria in real time, creating a clear picture of how each initiative aligned with priorities. This quickly exposed “pet projects” and highlighted the initiatives that best advanced APA’s mission.
By shifting the conversation from opinion to evidence, TransparentChoice enabled stakeholders to move beyond preconceptions. The process was collaborative and engaging, giving everyone a voice while speeding up decision-making and reducing friction.
"The idea of eliminating bias, bringing all the voices in, making everyone’s opinions viable and shared and known to one another really resonated… culturally it was a good fit for us." 0:51
"I think for it from the bigger one of the surprises to me about the process was how important the conversation around establishing those criteria, like getting the getting the board to agree on what the criteria would be. And then also though the waiting of those I think was revealing in ways that I really didn't expect." 2:42
The Results
APA emerged with a clear, aligned backlog that focused resources where they would deliver the most value. Instead of debating individual projects endlessly, the board could now focus on strategy.
Pet projects and low-value initiatives were eliminated, freeing up capacity for work that mattered. Leaders could see at a glance which initiatives deserved investment, and board discussions became more efficient and productive.
As Mike Welch put it, the process “has already changed the way our board is thinking about prioritization.” TransparentChoice turned project overload into clarity, alignment, and measurable value for APA.
"It really becomes evident which of the things are sort of those pet projects… a handful of people might support them, but they don’t have broad-based support. That was helpful for us in a really practical sense — saving time and money." 1:58
"As a result of the prioritization we were able to move things up… including high-profile, big-dollar activities like our national conference. It was helpful for the executive team to see those move into the highest tier along with other strategic projects." 3:57
"This had a fantastic first year out with TransparentChoice. It’s been a great success and really has changed the direction of the way our board’s thinking about prioritization." 4:55
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