To Dot (vote) or not to Dot (vote) that is the question.
I have been thinking about DOT voting for a while and how it is used in many workshops to decide how to move forward with a decision a team must make.
Traditionally it is said that DOT voting is good because it democratizes the process, it is fast and it prioritizes what the group thinks is the right way to move forward.
I have used the method myself - in the early days of my career - as most everyone else, you vote, decide and move to solutions.
I still use voting for some activities, but not really as a decision-making tool.
I use the votes to try and understand what the group may be thinking, but I don't use it as a decision tool at that point, nor do I move forward right away with what we have been voted on, it is too soon and too ambiguous.
Another thing I find hard with DOT Voting in its current form is that there are no specific criteria guiding you for the voting itself, so while you put one vote down, I have no idea what you are giving that vote for.
Is it because of intuition, or do you have a bias towards that solution, is it groupthink because you saw everyone else vote on it, is it because it is familiar to you, or is it because you just came out of a meeting and thus are influenced, etc...
For some of the biases like groupthink, I have moved the vote to be anonymous, and digital (such as voting on Miro, which really helps with this one problem).
What can you do to make this process better?
I have been bringing in a bit more of a different approach and adding scoring criteria to decisions, to make sure that you are looking beyond your intuition from dot voting.
Some of the things you could create a scoring grid on could be: (you can score these from 0-3 or 0-10 or however it works for you)
This grid is on the behavioral design strategy board if you want to have a look.
Example Grid
Scoring Criteria 0= Unacceptable and 3= Very Promising
Grid Inputs: 1. Potential Target Behavior 2. Impact of Behavior Change 3.
Ease of change 4. Ease of Measurement 5. Potential Target Behavior 6.
Total Score
After you do your score, you can compare it to the voting you did and see how well (or not) it aligns.
How do you keep your voting/deciding process in check?
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