Decision Support
Decision Matrix
Compare multiple options against weighted criteria and let the math show which choice actually wins. Add your own criteria, assign importance weights, score each option, and watch the rankings update live.
Matrix Builder
Weights and scores use a 1 to 10 scale by default. Higher scores are always treated as better.
Ready. Edit the example matrix or add your own criteria and options.
Ranked Results
Total score is the sum of criterion weight × option score across the full matrix.
MacBook Pro
255
4
3
| Rank | Option | Total | Percent | Best Criterion |
|---|
About this tool
Decision Matrix
Decision Matrix scores competing options against weighted criteria and ranks them, with live totals as you adjust.
How to use it
- List the options you are choosing between.
- Add the criteria that matter and give each a weight.
- Score each option against each criterion.
- Read the ranked totals.
What the matrix is really for
The arithmetic is straightforward: each score is multiplied by its criterion's weight and summed. The value is not in the sum, it is in being forced to name the criteria and say how much each one matters before you look at the answer.
Most people already have a preference and are looking for justification. A matrix is most useful when it disagrees with you, because that disagreement tells you either that a criterion is missing or that your preference is not really about the criteria you listed.
When it helps
- Comparing job offers, tools, suppliers or apartments.
- Making a group decision where people weight things differently.
- Documenting why a decision was made.
- Surfacing a criterion nobody had said out loud.
Common mistakes
- Adjusting the weights until the answer matches your preference. That is not analysis, though noticing you want to is genuinely informative.
- Using too many criteria. Beyond about six, everything averages out and the ranking becomes noise.
- Treating the winner as binding. The matrix is an input to a decision, not the decision.
