Uses
- Helps you think systematically about the pros and cons of competing options.
- Helps clarify your objectives and strategies.
Description
An Options Evaluation Matrix evaluates and prioritizes a list of options. By establishing a list of weighted criteria, each option is evaluated against those criteria. It may be helpful to determine whether criteria are mandatory or desirable when evaluating the different options.
Mandatory Criteria: are requirements that absolutely must be satisfied for an option to be considered feasible. These can be considered “go/no-‐go” criteria.
Desirable Criteria: are requirements that should be met to some degree as reflected by some benefit. Satisfaction of these criteria is highly desirable but some criteria may be sacrificed to others if the result allows a net benefit.
First Level Evaluation: Consider each of the mandatory criteria – if an option fails to meet one or more mandatory criteria, that option should be nixed.
Second Level Evaluation: You can then proceed to assess the options that have met all of the mandatory criteria against the desired criteria. Each option can be assigned a score reflecting how well the option satisfies each criterion. A simple approach is to score each option as exceeds, full compliance, partial compliance, non-‐compliance with assigned values of 5, 3, 1 and 0 respectively.
TIPS
- You may find it helpful to differentiate between Mandatory and Desirable Criteria in the Matrix.