Good decision-making matters. Organizations that focus on good decisions outperform their peers by 6 percentage-points (Bain). This tutorial will show you how to make good decisions, focusing on how to structure the process to give the best results. While this tutorial references TransparentChoice, the process outlined here is applicable more broadly. Following the guidelines here will help you make better decisions in areas like project prioritization, procurement and vendor selection, product roadmap definition, R&D Pipeline management, strategy development, site selection and more.

1. Good decision-making
practice
How can you structure a
good decision-making
process?

2. How people make decisions
• We can’t handle complexity
(bounded rationality)
• Bias pushes us around
(recency, confirmation, etc.)
• Our goals are not the org’s
goals (agency problems)
• We use our gut… (fast vs. slow
thinking)
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3. How organizations make decisions
• Teams suffer from
– Non-aligned goals
– Power politics
– Group dynamics (group think,
bullying, etc.)
– Lack of mutual understanding
• 50% of the time, they’re
wrong
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4. Improving your hit-rate
Research suggests you
can increase decision
success rate from 50%
to 80%. All you need is
some good structure to
your decision and strong
collaboration. This helps
build better decision
quality and increases
buy-in. Decisionquality
Buy-in
Note: buy-in is also important and has a significant impact on the implementation of a
decision
TransparentChoice helps
improve decision quality and
buy-in by stakeholders

5. When should I use TransparentChoice?
• Here are four questions to help you decide if you
should use TransparentChoice for your next
decision. If you answer “yes” to two or more of
these questions, collaborative decision making
software would definitely help.
– Do you have multiple stakeholders?
– Do you have multiple drivers / criteria?
– Does your decision have long-lasting implications?
– Does your decision affect a significant amount of
resource/money?

6. How TransparentChoice solves the
problem
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Structure the decision, eliminate bias
Gather opinion and
build consensus
Deliver results and recommendations

7. Clear
Priorities /
Criteria
Structured
evaluation
of
alternatives
Clear
decision
with
consensus
TransparentChoice - The concept

8. Clear priorities / criteria
• Define the goals and drivers of the decision
• This makes everything explicit, eliminating the hidden
agenda and the “unsubstantiated gut feeling”
• Allows stakeholders to build awareness of each others’
needs, and reach consensus on criteria to be used in
the decision
• Allows clear weighting of the criteria. This helps define
how trade-offs will be made. The structured
collaboration process ensures that stakeholders buy-in
and that different views are heard, improving decision
quality.

9. Structured evaluation of
alternatives
• Your decision can only be as good as the
alternatives you consider. Built-in ideation
allows you to leverage your wider team to get
more creative solutions to your problems.
• Structured evaluation of alternatives can
include expert judgements, data on
alternatives (e.g. price, weight, etc.) and
output from models (e.g. Monte Carlo
simulation, RoI or NPV models, etc.)

10. Clear decision with
consensus
• Combine criteria with the scores for alternatives
to see “attractiveness scores” for each alternative
• Clear view of value-for-money and a handy
portfolio-picker lets you make rational, quick
decisions
• Sensitivity analysis and what-if scenarios allow
you to check the robustness of your decisions
• Share the decision quickly and clearly. Make the
logic transparent, which helps your team be more
effective implementing the decision.

11. The anatomy of a good decision-
making process
• A good decision starts with a clear framing of the problem and a clear process for making the
decision. The following page shows a process for a typical “important” decision such as
project prioritization or a major procurement project. You might skip, or consolidate, steps on
a smaller / less important decision
• The process looks linear, but it’s really made up of a few iterative processes. In particular, the
relationship between the goal of the decision, the criteria and the alternatives is usually
iterative. You should always start with the goal, then you can look at criteria OR at
alternatives first then iterate. When you look at alternatives, for example, they lead to new
criteria. Similarly, brainstorming criteria might suggest new alternatives – and these may even
lead you to reframe the decision completely. Don’t rush this process.
• In the following diagram, we have highlighted tasks that usually sit with the executive team
and ones that sit with the “project team” (the person or people responsible for doing
research and presenting recommendations to the decision-makers). It is important to get
agreement with the decision maker and other senior stakeholders throughout the process.
This does two important things; first it allows you to improve decision quality / course correct
early, and second it means that you’re building buy-in to the decision while you go through
the process.
• Note that in this process, we have assumed that it is a multi-step decision. This is typical, for
example, in procurement decisions where a long-list of vendors is reduced to a short-list. Not
all decisions need this step and it can safely be eliminated.

12. A typical decision process
Executive responsibility
Project team responsibility
Identify
problem,
frame
decision
Identify
goals
and
priorities
(criteria)
Identify
possible
solutions
(alternatives)
Weight
priorities
/ criteria
Agree list of
alternatives
First review
of
alternatives
“First cut” to
eliminate
some
alternatives
Deep review
of
alternatives
Prepare
recommendations
Make
decision
TIME

13. Key steps / meetings
There are typically several key meetings / steps during a
significant decision process. They include…
Criteria
brainstorming
Major stakeholders
List of criteria to
use in the decision
Facilitated meeting
or other
collaborative
method
Criteria
weighting /
priority setting
Major stakeholders
List of weighted
criteria
Facilitated meeting
Brainstorm
alternatives
Major
stakeholders,
wider team-
members
List of potential
solutions
Online ideation,
structured
brainstorming, etc.
Research into
alternatives
Typically subject-
matter experts
List of alternatives
scored against
criteria
Online research,
in-person
meetings,
modelling, etc.
The decision
Decision maker
(and senior
stakeholders)
Decision
Facilitated meeting
showing results of
analysis
WhoDeliverableHow

14. TransparentChoice
TransparentChoice is software that supports the decision process and
helps humans make better decisions. TransparentChoice lets you:
– Frame your decision
– Identify alternatives (including import and on-line ideation)
– Define and weight your criteria (including on-line collaboration and
real-time meetings)
– Score your alternatives against criteria (including on-line collaboration,
importing of data from external sources and real-time meetings)
– See which options are most attractive, which offer the best value for
money, which are most robust
– Make your decision and export results to other systems for
implementation
– Maintain a record of how the decision was made to support
governance and auditing

15. Instant access
Affordable
Easy to use
www.transparentchoice.com