Case Study – The Decision Matrix in Action

Last updated on October 25, 2011 By

In the previous article we looked at the process of using a Decision Matrix to decide between multiple options. In this article I will show you a 10-minute video to demonstrate how to use my free Decision Matrix spreadsheet. I designed it to be simple to use, with a focus on visual clarity, so that you can benefit straight away from this simple tool built using Excel. Watch the video now…

Watch my video:

What to Watch For…

Principles

0:12 – What is a decision matrix?

0:35 – What product to buy?

1:21 – Criteria (objective or subjective)

1:55 – Simple decision matrix

2:20 – Launch Excel Redesign


Spreadsheet

4:18 – Outline of Spreadsheet

4:43 – Enable macros & Fill in title

5:08 – Options along the top

5:35 – Criteria along the left

6:10 – Weightings

6:47 – Score Options

8:00 – Summary of Decision


Review

8:18 – Was it a good decision?

9:01 – How the decision matrix helped

9:33 – Download the spreadsheet


Download your free decision matrix spreadsheet

Visit the Decision Matrix Download Page to get a copy of our Decision Matrix Template. This template is made available for personal and commercial use under the Creative Commons License “Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0” so you are free to alter, transform or build upon this work as long as you respect the following terms:

  • Attribution – attribute the work to Launch Excel “Based on a design by Launch Excel (www.launchexcel.com)” but not in any way that suggests it is endorsed by Launch Excel
  • Share alike – If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one

Do you have any examples to share?

If you have a decision matrix you built in Excel that you want to share, please put a link here in the comments, or send me your spreadsheets and I will consider adding them to a future blog post, attributing them to you. Please make sure your decision matrix meets these criteria. It must be:

  • informative, clean and visually appealing
  • suitable for the workplace

Please email your examples to Victor:


Recommendation for Headway WordPress Theme

The happy result of my decision making process is that I spent $87 on Headway 2.0, and redesigned LaunchExcel.com in two days with pretty much exactly the layout I wanted, with no HTML or PHP coding required!


If you like the site design then you could also look into buying the Headway theme if you own a website and want to redesign it by yourself. Headway’s visual editor is really powerful because it allows someone like me with very little WordPress/HTML/PHP knowledge do a site redesign in a couple of days – all using the simplicity of drag and drop!

You can check out the site for Headway Themes here. If you decide to buy the theme through my link I’ll earn a commission, but please know that I am only recommending their WordPress theme because I’m absolutely convinced of its value.


One more thing, the Headway theme makers are going to release v3.0 soon and they say the price will go up when that’s out – so if you get Headway 2.0 now for $87 (personal option) you are entitled to free lifetime upgrades and can upgrade to v3.0 for free (this article was written in October 2011).


What’s next?

Check out the rest of my resources page for more on learning Excel. Or if you haven’t yet read the previous article about the decision matrix process, I recommend you do so to give you a thorough understanding of how to maximize the effectiveness of your decision matrix.

More Decision Matrix resources:

General resources on decision making:


Related Posts:


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Hey, I'm Victor Chan

Are you struggling with complex Excel tasks? Feeling overwhelmed by spreadsheets that are hard to use?

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