Idea Screening Matrix
The Idea Screening Matrix scores each candidate idea against the same weighted criteria, so a shortlist survives on evidence rather than on whoever pitched it loudest.
Boxes run left to right: agree the criteria, weight them, score every idea against them, multiply and sum, then rank and cut.
Reach for this when…
- You've got a pile of ideas from a generation session and everyone has a favourite.
- Two ideas are being compared on gut feel, not the same yardstick.
- Budget is limited and you need a defensible reason for what you cut.
How to run it
- Agree the criteria that actually matter (market potential, feasibility, cost, strategic fit, risk).
- Weight each criterion; they are not equally important.
- Score every idea against every criterion on the same scale.
- Multiply score by weight and sum for a total per idea.
- Rank the list and cut the bottom before you fall in love with a number.
A worked example
Situation. Liam Anderson runs Cook Strait Metalworks, a machine-parts manufacturer in Wellington, New Zealand, where an internal pitch day produced eight new-product ideas and two loud champions.
Applied. He built a matrix with five weighted criteria and had the team score every idea blind, with names stripped off before scoring.
Result. The idea the two loudest engineers had championed scored last on feasibility. A quieter idea, a modular mounting bracket, topped the list and got the funding instead.
The catch
The scores feel objective but the weights are still a judgement call, and different stakeholders will weight feasibility against market potential differently. It can't score an idea nobody thought to include, and a matrix built and scored by one person just launders that person's bias with numbers.
Change the weights and watch the ranking move. If it moves a lot, you didn't have consensus, you had one person's opinion in disguise.