Meeting canvases · Ideas
Decision matrix: compare options against weighted criteria
A decision matrix is a table that rates a short list of options against the criteria a decision depends on, with each criterion weighted by how much it matters. Multiply each rating by its weight and add them up, and the totals rank the options, giving the team a structured start to the discussion rather than an automatic answer.
Troopa builds the matrix during your call on Teams, Zoom or Google Meet: the options, the criteria with their weights, and each score the room gives, with the weighted totals added up and the leading option marked. Say “Hi Troopa, let’s do a decision matrix for the new CRM” to start.
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Why scoring options together goes wrong
- Two people score an option a 2 and a 5, and the group averages it to a 3 instead of asking why.
- “Cost” is scored so the most expensive option gets the most points, and nobody notices until the end.
- A pile of minor criteria outvotes the one thing the option had to do.
- The weights are argued about after the scores are in, which is when everyone knows which option they favour.
- One person builds the spreadsheet alone, and the reasons behind each score are lost by the next meeting.
- The totals look precise, so the winner is treated as decided even when it feels wrong to everyone.
How to build a decision matrix with Troopa
Step 1: Open the matrix
Say “Hi Troopa, let’s do a decision matrix for the new CRM”. When the room starts weighing options, Troopa may suggest one, a tap away.
Step 2: Agree criteria and weights first
Name the criteria and how much each matters, from 1 to 5, before anybody scores an option, so the weights are not bent towards a favourite.
Step 3: Score out loud
Each score the room gives goes in its box, from 1 to 5, and you can change any score or weight on the card as the discussion moves.
Step 4: Read the totals together
The weighted totals add up as you go and the leading option is marked, so the room sees how close the result is, not just who won.
Step 5: Keep the reasoning
Present the matrix to agree the choice, then download it as Excel or PDF. The transcript keeps why each score was given.
A decision matrix example: choosing a CRM
A sales and operations team is choosing between three CRMs after a month of trials. Femi runs the decision on Google Meet with Troopa open.
- Femi“Hi Troopa, let’s do a decision matrix for the new CRM.”
- Femi“Fit to our sales process matters most, a five. Low total cost and integrations are threes, ease of adoption a two.”
- Sophie“On fit, the sales-first CRM is a five, the suite a four, the low-cost one a three.”
- Raj“On cost, the low-cost CRM is a five, the sales-first a three and the suite a two.”
- Sophie“Integrations: the suite’s a five, the other two threes. For ease, low-cost five, sales-first four, suite three.”
- Troopa, on your screen“3 options · 4 criteria · Sales-first CRM leads”
- Raj“That’s close. If cost mattered one point more, they’d tie.”
Decision matrices in different industries
Procurement and fintech
Choosing a provider after a request for proposals, such as an identity-checking service: compliance, coverage, cost and integration effort, with anything a provider must have checked first as pass or fail.
Manufacturing and engineering
Choosing between design concepts with a Pugh matrix: each concept marked better, the same or worse than a chosen baseline, round after round, with the strongest features of the losers merged into the winner.
Public sector
An options appraisal for how to deliver a service, where UK government practice is multi-criteria analysis: agreed criteria, explicit weights, and a record of why the board chose as it did.
Healthcare operations
Choosing a booking or rostering system, or a supplier, with operations, IT and finance scoring the options together. Operational choices only, never clinical ones.
Software and product teams
Choosing a tool, a vendor or an architecture option, where the weights make the trade-off explicit: is speed of delivery really worth twice as much as running cost?
Agencies and consultancies
Presenting a client with three campaign concepts or three delivery options, and scoring them with the client in the room, so the recommendation is a shared one.
A decision matrix template with weights
Rule out anything that fails a must-have before you score, keep to three to five options and no more than eight criteria, and word every criterion so that a high score is good: “low cost”, not “cost”.
Decision: [one sentence] Decides: [name] By: [date] Must-haves (pass or fail, before scoring): [...] Criterion (weight 1 to 5) | Option A | Option B | Option C [criterion] (x5) | [1-5] | [1-5] | [1-5] [criterion] (x3) | [1-5] | [1-5] | [1-5] [criterion] (x2) | [1-5] | [1-5] | [1-5] Weighted total | [sum of weight x score for each option] What a 1, a 3 and a 5 mean for each criterion: [...] Close call? Which weight would change the winner: [...] Decision: [option], because [...] Dissent: [...] Next step: [...]
Questions that make the numbers mean something
- What would rule an option out completely? Check that before scoring anything.
- If we could judge on only three things, which three would they be?
- Is this criterion really twice as important as that one?
- Everyone score alone first, then talk about every box where scores differ by two or more.
- What would have to be true for the runner-up to win?
- Does the winner feel right? If not, which criterion are we missing?
Questions about decision matrices
How do you make a decision matrix?
List the options, agree the criteria and give each a weight for how much it matters, then score every option against every criterion on the same scale. Multiply each score by its criterion’s weight, add up each option’s weighted scores, and discuss the result before deciding.
What is a weighted decision matrix?
One where each criterion has a weight, so a criterion that matters more counts for more in the total. An unweighted matrix treats every criterion as equally important, which is rarely true and lets a pile of minor criteria outvote a major one.
What is a Pugh matrix?
A decision matrix developed by Stuart Pugh in the 1980s for choosing between design concepts. Each concept is marked better, the same or worse than a chosen baseline concept on each criterion, and the process is repeated with the best features combined.University of Cambridge, Institute for Manufacturing: Controlled convergence →
Does the option with the highest score win?
Not automatically. The totals are a structured starting point for the discussion: if the winner feels wrong, ask which criterion is missing, and look at how close the totals are, since a small change in one weight can change the order.AHRQ, Workflow Assessment for Health IT Toolkit: Decision matrix →
How many criteria should a decision matrix have?
Usually three to eight criteria and three to five options. More than that makes dozens of scores to agree, tires the room, and lets overlapping criteria count the same thing twice.
Where does the decision matrix come from?
Weighing options on several factors is old: in 1772 Benjamin Franklin described listing the reasons for and against and weighing them, which he called moral or prudential algebra. The scored and weighted matrix most teams use grew out of twentieth-century quality and engineering practice.Founders Online (US National Archives), Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley, 19 September 1772 →
Sources
- ASQ, What is a decision matrix?
- University of Cambridge, Institute for Manufacturing: Controlled convergence
- AHRQ, Workflow Assessment for Health IT Toolkit: Decision matrix
- Founders Online (US National Archives), Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley, 19 September 1772
Read on 15 October 2026, by the people who make Troopa.
Try it in your next meeting
Install Troopa on your Mac, Windows PC or Ubuntu computer, join your call on Teams, Zoom or Google Meet as you always do, and ask: “Hi Troopa, let’s do a decision matrix for the new CRM.”
14 days free, no card. Then $15 per seat, per month. Cancel any time.