What is a prioritizing grid and what is it good for?

Prioritizing grid for 10 options

A prioritizing grid is useful for systematically comparing each member of a set of options against every other one. The blank grid above can be printed and filled in for up to 10 options. Tally the number of times each option is selected and then rank them from most votes to least.

Job hunters may have come across the prioritizing grid in Richard Nelson Bolles’ book, What Color is Your Parachute? A free customizable web-based version is available here. It may be used for any important decision you want to weigh carefully.

Where can I learn more about prioritizing grids?

“Prioritizing grid” is one term for the visual tool used in the “paired comparisons” analysis technique. A detailed article, with a variation which measures strength of preference, can be found here. Another article, with a simple example, can be found here.