If the team can’t come to a clear consensus after Dot Voting, you can use a Decision Matrix to help you narrow in on the more effective ideas.

The matrix is a simple table or diagram that helps the team judge all the ideas based on a set of criteria that is most useful for the goals of the sprint. The most common is to consider user impact versus implementation effort. Ideally you want ideas that are either high impact/low effort or high impact/high effort.

Directions:

Time: 30 min
Activity: Group

1. Select the most useful criteria for evaluating your ideas
2. For example if you are looking at impact for effort, Label the Y axis (left)as “Impact” with “High Impact” at the top of the axis and “Low Impact” at the bottom.
3. Label the X axis (bottom) as “Effort” with “Low Effort” on the left and “High Effort” on the right.
4. As a group, plot all your ideas along these two axes, discussing which ideas fall into the high impact/low effort and high impact/high effort ranges.
5. Once your matrix is mapped, remove any low impact ideas (whether low or high effort) and vote again. You can always capture the ideas in a document for a later date if you like.