Decision-making matrix

Making the right decisions can help steer the team in the right direction and achieve the desired goals, but how do you know which decision is right? What do you do when confronted with a choice among several available options? Flip a coin? Throw dices?

If you have difficulties in this process, then you will be helped by the decision matrix. This tool allows us to quickly consider all "for" and "against" of each option, weigh various variables and make the right decision.

Let's look at what needs to be done for this.

Before you can build your matrix, determine the options you are choosing between.

For example, let's say your team is launching a new advertising campaign this summer. You need to choose a provider for creating the visual effects and video for the design. Right now, you have identified three design agencies, although each of them has its own pros and cons.

The second step to building a decision matrix is identifying the important criteria influencing your decision. This set of criteria helps determine the optimal solution and avoid subjectivity.

Continuing with our example, your team has decided that the important criteria when choosing a design agency are:

• cost
• experience
• communication
• customer feedback.

The decision matrix is a grid where you can compare criteria between different options.

Now rate each criterion on a scale. If there is no big difference between the options, use a scale from 1 to 3, where three is the best option.

For more options, use a scale from 1 to 5, where five is the best option.

This is where the advantages of the decision matrix start to become apparent.

Sometimes certain criteria are more important than others. In such cases, you can use a weighted decision matrix to determine your best option.

To continue with our example, imagine that you can't exceed your budget, so cost is a critical factor in your decision-making process. Customer reviews are also important, as they give you a baseline on how effective each agency has been in the past.

To add weights to your decision matrix, assign each criterion a coefficient (from 1 to 3 or from 1 to 5 depending on how many options you have).

Later in the decision-making process, you'll multiply the weight coefficient by each criterion.

After applying your rating scale and assigning a weight to each criterion, multiply the weight for each criterion. This ensures that the more important criteria will carry greater weight, which will ultimately help you select the best agency.

Now that you have multiplied the weighted score, sum up all the criteria for each agency. At this stage, you should have a clear, numbers-based answer to the question of which solution is the best.

As you can see, Agency 2 has the highest score, so that is the agency to work with. Even though Agency 1 was cheaper, the average cost of Agency 2, in combination with their years of experience and great customer reviews, make them the best option for your team. Now, it's just time to get in touch with the agency!