Scores don’t have to be perfect, and 0 can mean bad/low confidence/not applicable/failure/etc., while 100 can mean great/high confidence/guaranteed/etc.ĭecision Matrix Template Excel Thumbnail Preview Of course, if you don’t know all of your options yet, this can’t be done (for example, if you’re using this technique to interview candidates for employment, you may need to score each attribute for the candidate while on the phone). I highly recommend scoring all options for an attribute before moving to the next attribute, because it’s much easier to imagine the attribute, then score each option relative to one another. Then, for each attribute, assign a score from 0-100 to each option. In the example I’ve been using, this would be the vendor names.
In group situations, the discussion about the relative importance of these attributes can be very enlightening, and it’s a fantastic way to build consensus. In that case, you’re saying that those attributes will be treated equally. Naturally, lower weights are less important than higher weights, and it’s okay if multiple attributes share the same weight. For example, if Cost is assigned a weight of 8 and Expertise is assigned a 4, you’re saying that Cost is twice as important as Expertise in your decision. In this decision matrix, the range of numbers doesn’t matter it’s the relationship between those numbers that matters. It’s often helpful to include a few more words, like: “Process Familiarity – how well does the vendor understand the way we do things at our company?â€įor each attribute, assign a relative weight that is greater than zero. If you’re doing this as a group, make sure everyone agrees what the attribute means. For example, if you’re considering multiple vendors, you might use attributes like Cost, Reliability, Company Size, Expertise, Process Familiarity, etc. You can include as many attributesĪs necessary. Of the options you’re considering, decide which attributes can be used to help make a decision. Step 4: Assign objective 0-100 scores for how option satisfies each attribute (best to do this on an attribute-by-attribute basis) Step 5: Options with the higest scores should be considered Step 3: Assign relative weights to each attribute in row 9 (i.e. Step 2: Determine important attributes and add/remove columns, as appropriate