Dot Voting

Collaboratively prioritize any set of items.

Often in ideation sessions, there will come a time when there are many good ideas, concepts, and directions to move forward. Dot Voting is one of the simplest ways to narrow down and prioritize upon an agreed solution with a team.

Minimum of 2 people

30 minutes

What you’ll need

Pens or markers
Paper
Dot Stickers
Items to vote on

Prerequisite Activities

None

Downloadable Materials

Instructions

step 1

Agree on the goal

As a team, make sure everyone understands the criteria and goal of your vote. Are there any other requirements that must be considered?

step 2

Share the ideas or items

Gather the ideas or items you want to vote on. Read them aloud so everyone knows what the options are.

step 3

Give everyone voting dots

Each person should get the same number of dots as the total number of solutions you hope to have decided on at the end of the activity.

Example: I want to narrow down from 10 ideas to 3. Each person should get 3 dots.

step 4

Vote!

Ask the group to cast their votes by placing a dot next to the items that best meet the criteria established in step 2. They may use stickers or markers to do this. Participants should cast their votes all at once. They may vote more than once for a single item.

Tip

It’s ok to vote for your own idea.

step 5

Tally the votes

Once all the votes are cast, tally them, and make a list of the items by their new rank.

Tip

If no clear winners have been decided, go through another round of dot voting where each person only gets two dots, this time, and can not place them on the same idea or concept.

step 6

Make decisions

The prioritized list becomes the subject of discussion and decision making. What will you do next? Share the top items with the group. Focus on the top three to five ideas that received the most dots and discuss. In the event of a tie, the project owner gets the deciding vote.