This is a mechanical, way to prioritise a list of possibilities against a set of cirtieria.  This can be used to facilitate decision making in a workshop.
Use the following steps:
  1. List your options as rows in a table.
  2. List the factors that are important for making the decision as column headings.
  3. Decide on weightings to show the relative importance of the deciding factors.   If the weighting is not obvious, use a technique such as Paired Comparison Analysis to estimate them.
  4. Work through the table, scoring each option on how well it satisfies each factor,  from 0 (poor) to 10 (very good).
  5. Now multiply each of your scores by the weightings.
  6. Finally add up these weighted scores for each option and rank the options accordingly.
Example:
I have used this to help a marketing house prioritise the brokers who supply them with client applications.  They could not supply the same level of service to all the brokers and wanted to create two or three groups each to receive a different level of service.
The prioritisation criteria were:
  • The size of their business.
  • The number of applications they submitted per month (average of the last six).
  • How easy they were to work with
  • The growth of their business
  • Their knowledge of the market
  • Their knowledge of the clients products
3. They listed about 15 brokers but in the example I will use Brokers A to D.
Criteria: Business Size Apps /month Work ease Business Growth Market Knwldge Product Knwldge Total
Weights: 3

8

4

6 4 5
Broker A 6 = 18 10 = 80 7 = 28 4 = 24 6 = 24 8 = 40 214
Broker B 2 = 6 3 = 24 4 = 16 2 = 12 5 = 20 4 = 20 98
Broker C 5 = 15 2 = 16 3 = 12 7 = 42 3 = 12 2 = 10 109
Broker D 4 = 12 5 = 40 8 = 32 6 = 36 4 = 16 7 = 35 171
From this abbreviated analysis you can see that Broker A is the most promising person on the list.  My client used the prioritisation to create three groups of brokers.  They offered the top group a fuller service than the lower and used this as a reward and incentive to their brokers.
If you do this exercise and find anomalies in your results it is a good time to reflect on the weighting you give to your criteria and why.
And now the confession:
I really don’ t remember the weightings they used.  Actually I don’t even remember the criteria.  But I do remember how relieved and energised they were when the picture emerged.