Impact Personas Survey Tool

A 17-question survey assessing contextual capacity, capability, and impact identity.

1. Overview

Impact Personas is a concise survey instrument consisting of 17 questions that assess three fundamental aspects of an individual's readiness and orientation toward creating impact through innovation and research translation.

2. Contextual Capacity

Contextual capacity measures the external conditions and environmental factors that enable or constrain an individual's ability to pursue impact. This dimension assesses:

Time availability — whether the individual has sufficient time allocated to innovation and impact activities, beyond their core responsibilities
Policy and leadership support — the degree to which organisational policies, leadership priorities, and institutional culture actively support and encourage impact-oriented work

3. Capability

Capability measures the individual's self-assessed skills and competencies related to innovation and impact work. This dimension captures:

Perceptions of innovation capabilities — how confident the individual feels in their ability to innovate, identify opportunities, and develop novel solutions
Perceptions of impact capabilities — how confident the individual feels in their ability to translate ideas and research into tangible, real-world outcomes

4. Impact Identity

Impact identity is the most distinctive dimension of the Impact Personas framework. It measures the degree to which individuals integrate their innovation and impact projects into their core sense of self.

Individuals with a strong impact identity see their projects as a fundamental part of who they are, not merely tasks to complete
This dimension is a strong predictor of persistence, engagement, and willingness to overcome obstacles
Understanding impact identity helps organisations identify who is most likely to drive projects to successful outcomes

5. The Three Dimensions Together

Dimension	What It Measures	Key Indicators
Contextual Capacity	External enabling conditions	Time availability, policy and leadership support
Capability	Self-assessed skills	Innovation capabilities, impact capabilities
Impact Identity	Personal integration	Degree of identification with impact projects

Together, these three dimensions create a profile — an Impact Persona — that reveals not just what an individual can do, but what they are positioned and motivated to achieve.

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