STEP 5 - APPLY CRITERIA to SOLUTION IDEAS

Determine which solution would make the best action plan. Applying the criteria to your solution ideas is an important focusing tool. Use a grid to apply five criteria to the ten most promising solution ideas in order to determine the best action plan.

 

STEP 5 – Essentials

1.      If you have up to 16 solution ideas in Step 3, select your 10 most promising solution ideas and list them in the 10 solution idea blanks of the grid. If you have 10 or fewer, list them all.

 

2.      Based on each criterion, rank order your solution ideas from 10 (best) to 1 (least effective). Make sure you use each number between 10 and 1 only once, in each vertical column. If two solution ideas tie, add the next two ranks and divide by two. (i.e. 6 + 7 = 13 , divide by 2 for ranks of 6.5)

 

3.      Add across the grid to total the ranks given to each solution idea. Double-check your addition for the totals in the grid to make certain you did not make a mathematical error.

·        The solution idea with the highest total rank is the solution idea used to develop your action          plan.

 

STEP 5 – Suggestions

1.      Don't waste time rewriting each solution idea completely in the small space provided in the grid. Enter only a few key words, just enough to jog your memory and then include the number of the solution idea (from Step 3) to give the evaluator easy reference to the complete wording of that solution idea.

 

2.      In ranking each solution idea against a criterion the team may find it easier to determine the best solution idea and then the least effective solution idea (10 and 1, 9 and 2), alternating back and forth, rather than trying to identify the best, next best, etc. (10, 9…).

·         If you have fewer than 10 solution ideas, rank the solution ideas based on the number you actually have, such as 8 (best), 7, 6… etc.

 

1.      If you feel one criterion is more important than the others you may want to increase its value or give it more “weight.” Weighting a criterion means it carries more weight in determining your action plan. For example, if you feel criterion #1 is twice as important as all others, you would weight it as 2X which means all of the ranks under that criterion are multiplied by 2. Thus, instead of entering the numbers 10 through 1 below that criterion, you would enter the numbers 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2.

 

2.      Double‑check your addition for the totals in the grid to make certain you have not made a mathematical error.

 

3.      Do not manipulate the grid. It is inappropriate to assign the same rank to each solution idea for every criterion. It is unusual for each solution idea to receive the same rank from five different criterion.

 

4.      If after completing the grid you have two or more solution ideas tied for the action plan, break the tie. Methods for breaking the tie include: introduce a sixth criterion, go back and weight one or more criteria, eliminate all other solution ideas and have a head‑to‑head playoff between the tied solution ideas (using your original five criteria). It would be useful to write a note to the evaluator explaining how you broke the tie.