Making a large purchase decision – or even a small one – is not an easy task. Various metrics can be used, such as, ROI (return on investment), payback time calculations, etc.
Another simple idea is to consider this fact: you can only pick two out of these three, Quality, Price, or Support.
A purchase cannot be made that will check all three boxes. We want great quality and great support, but are not willing to pay the premium price. That may be fine for some purchases, so long as we are aware that we compromise either quality or support.
How do you make important decisions? Seeking advise from others who are more experienced helps. What if you can’t ask anyone else? No worries. You may try making a pros vs cons list, rolling dice, or even flipping a coin. But what if the decision to be made is just too big for a coin flip? Here, a “weighed scoring” system will help.
Pros vs cons assumes that an entry in either column will cancel one in the other column. Not all entries are equally significant. In a weighed scoring system you create buckets and assign a percent factor. All the percent factors in all your buckets add to 100%. Each bucket also has a minimum and maximum score. Let’s say 1 to 5. Do not use zeros. You add up all the buckets by multiplying with the percent factor of that bucket. Do the same for each option. You now have a weighed score that can be used to compare options a lot more systematically.
Let’s run through an example:
I need to decide what university to do my studies in. I have 10 to choose from. I create three buckets with a percent factor assigned: reputation (0.5), cost (0.25), and city (0.25). The three add up to 1 (which is 100%}. I have a minimum score of 1 and a maximum score of 5.
University
Reputation (0.5)
Cost (0.25)
City (0.25)
Score
U of CityA
5
1
1
3
U of CityB
1
5
5
3
U of CityC
3
2
2
2.5
Weighed Scoring
We seem to have a tie. We can have a closer examination between these two options and reassess them for determine the winner. Sometimes, similar to a coin toss, it’s about eliminating options as much as finding the winner.
I hope you get the idea and utilize this system in some of your more complex situations were a pros vs cons list just doesn’t cut it. This system is used by large organizations and governments to determine who to award projects to. So the system certainly works.
