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How to choose and weight decision criteria
Decision criteria are the measures by which options will be judged: cost, speed, quality, risk, fit. Choosing them well does more for a decision than any amount of careful scoring, because a choice judged on the wrong criteria can be scored perfectly and still be wrong.
Requirements and preferences
Separate the two kinds first. A requirement is a line an option must clear or be dropped: a budget ceiling, a legal duty, a delivery date. A preference is something you would like more of, and it is traded against others. Requirements screen; preferences score.
Mixing them causes trouble. A requirement given 15 percent of the weight can be outvoted by strong scores elsewhere, and an option that should have been ruled out ends up winning.
Choosing good criteria
Each criterion should measure one thing, should be something you could score with evidence, and should actually separate the options in front of you. If every option meets it equally, leave it out of the scoring. Four to seven preferences is usually enough; beyond that, each carries too little weight to matter.
Weighting by the real trade
A method called swing weighting asks a sharper question than which criterion matters most. Picture every criterion at its worst level among the options on the table. Which single criterion would you most want to lift to its best level? That one receives the highest weight, and the others are weighted relative to it.
The question ties each weight to the actual range of the options. Cost may matter enormously in general, yet deserve little weight when the options differ by only 2 percent.
The common mistake
Changing the criteria after meeting the options. A team charmed by one vendor suddenly finds that a feature it lacks does not matter, or that a feature it has is essential. Write the criteria and weights before any option is scored, and record any later change together with its reason.
Criteria in a Decision Room
In Argumont, criteria carry weights that total 100 before any option is scored, and the engine works the weighted totals exactly. Each option's Champion argues its case on those criteria, and the Challenger presses on scores that look generous. The Verdict names the criterion whose weight would change the result, and the Human Decision then rests on criteria the team agreed before it had a favorite.
Choosing between two offices
A firm of 40 people compares two offices. Its one requirement is rent under $50,000 a month, and both pass. The rents differ by only $1,500, so cost is left out of the scoring. Using swing weights, the partners agree that moving from the worst commute to the best matters most, and set commute 40, lease flexibility 30, meeting rooms 20, and natural light 10. Office A scores 9, 4, 6, and 8; Office B scores 5, 9, 7, and 6. A totals 360 plus 120 plus 120 plus 80, or 680. B totals 200 plus 270 plus 140 plus 60, or 670. The choice is close, and it turns on the commute weight, which the partners now know to discuss openly.
Questions
- How many decision criteria should I use?
- Use as many requirements as the situation truly demands to screen the options. Then score on four to seven preferences that actually separate them.
- Should cost be a criterion or a requirement?
- Often both. A hard budget ceiling is a requirement. Within that budget, lower cost can be a preference weighted against the others.
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