FREE Resource - Rubric for Making Better Choices

What This Is

My team and I recently were discussing a significant decision facing the organization. We had several choices, each with its own strengths and disadvantages.

Whenever facing a choice like this, it's helpful to see it visualized and think about each factor that would define hoped-for outcome of the decision. I quickly pulled a simple 3x3 matrix together in Sheets that looks like this:

The Options are the various paths you can take with the decisions.

The Factors are the common traits that matter to you in the decision (ie: cost, quality, customer responsiveness, etc.)

[Obviously, most decisions won't fit nicely into a 3x3 matrix. The work we recently faced had 6 Options and 8 Factors. Adjust as necessary.]

If the Rating Factors aren't obvious, use the Description box in the lower quadrant to help clarify your thinking for your colleagues.

Why This is Helpful

Much of life is making the most educated guess possible given the available information. A simple rubric like this helps externalize your thinking so others can assess it and goes a step further to reducing blindspots in your judgment.

How You Can Make it Your Own

If this is useful to you and you'd like to customize your own decision rubric, take advantage of this free resource.

To edit your own copy, click File > Make a Copy. Hope it's helpful for you!