Okay, there are other ways to make decisions too, but I like the decision matrix. I learned this technique 35 years ago and have used it frequently over the year for many decisions. I like it because it gives me a quantitative bases to clarify my thinking.
I have here an example of how i made the decision to buy my Volvo from lease rather than buying or leasing a new one. To do this I set out my objectives for what i wanted to accomplish and gave each a weight of importance to me. Then on the top of the matrix i listed the alternatives i was considering, buy my current car our of lease or buy a new one. Then i evaluated each alternative giving it a value for how it accomplishes my objectives and multiplied the value by the objective weight to get a total for each. By summing the result i had an idea of what met my objectives best.
This is just the basis for starting the decision process. I could play with my model changing the objective weights and would get a different result. The value of meeting the goal is pretty fixed for the alternatives, so the real determinant is my objectives.
In this example i decided to buy my current car, mostly for total cost, it and it was available. I didn’t want to order one and I also wanted to keep the fire engine red Volvo i have!
Hope this helps someone!
| A | B | A X B | C | A X C | ||
| GOALS | WEIGHT | KEEP | KEEP | NEW | NEW | |
| DEPENDABILITY | 5 | 5 | 25 | 5 | 25 | |
| COST | ||||||
| PAYMENT | 4 | 5 | 20 | 3 | 12 | |
| TOTAL | 5 | 5 | 25 | 2 | 10 | |
| COLOR | 5 | 5 | 25 | 2 | 10 | |
| ACCESSORIES | 5 | 3 | 15 | 5 | 25 | * |
| MAINTENANCE | 5 | 3 | 15 | 5 | 25 | |
| AVAILABILITY | 5 | 5 | 25 | 2 | 10 | * |
| OWN VS LEASE | 5 | 5 | 25 | 3 | 15 | * |
| 5 | ||||||
| TOTAL POINTS | 175 | 132 |
That decision-making matrix seems awfully complicated to me. And perhaps a bit regimented. It should have at least two more categories: 1) Emotional Preference 2) Wife’s Preference. They should probably be weighted extra heavy.
Steve if I had listend to my wife and emotions I would have gotten a new one! LOL
Most help articels on the web are inaccurate or incoherent. Not this!