How do you compare the trade-offs of decision alternatives?

1 Define your criteria

Before you can compare the trade-offs of decision alternatives, you need to define your criteria for making a good decision. Criteria are the standards or objectives that you want to achieve or satisfy with your decision. For example, if you are deciding where to go for vacation, your criteria might include budget, distance, activities, weather, and safety. You can use a list, a table, or a mind map to identify and organize your criteria.

4 Compare the trade-offs

To compare the trade-offs of decision alternatives, you need to multiply the scores by the weights for each criterion, and then add up the results for each alternative. This will give you a weighted score for each alternative, which represents the overall value or benefit of that option for your decision. The alternative with the highest weighted score is the one that best meets your criteria and has the least trade-offs. You can use a table or a spreadsheet to display and compare the weighted scores of your alternatives.

5 Check your intuition

After you have compared the trade-offs of decision alternatives using a quantitative method, you might want to check your intuition and see how you feel about the results. Intuition is your gut feeling or instinct that tells you what is right or wrong for you. Sometimes, your intuition might agree with your analysis, but other times, it might conflict with it. For example, you might find that the alternative with the highest weighted score is not the one that you are most excited or comfortable with. In that case, you might want to reconsider your criteria, weights, scores, or even your alternatives, and see if you can find a better fit for your decision.

6 Seek feedback

Before you make your final decision, you might want to seek feedback from others who are affected by or knowledgeable about your decision. Feedback is the information or opinions that others give you about your decision alternatives and process. Feedback can help you validate your assumptions, discover new perspectives, identify potential risks or opportunities, and improve your confidence and clarity. You can seek feedback from your friends, family, colleagues, mentors, experts, or customers, depending on the nature and scope of your decision.