New Home Forums Course Ideas & Outlines Idea Ranking Spreadsheet

8 replies, 5 voices Last updated by  Bradley Morris 8 years, 2 months ago
Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #10491

    Lorraine Watson
    Adventurer
    @lorrainewatson

    Clarifying question – the video says to rank each question on a scale of 1-10, and the spreadsheet columns indicate a different ranking scale (eg 1-50).

    Which ranking should we use – all 1-10 or the spreadsheet? The spreadsheet scales would definitely put different weight on the questions.

    Thanks,

    Lorraine

    #10505

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    Hi @lorrainewatson, sorry about the mix-up there and thanks for the question.

    We recommend you go with 1-50. We thought (after the video) that the larger spread would help dial in which idea really is the best over the 1-10 scale.

    #10517

    Lorraine Watson
    Adventurer
    @lorrainewatson

    Sounds good @bradleytmorris. I find it interesting that Passion and expertise have the least amount of influence on the ranking.

    #10576

    Andy Freist
    Mountain Guide
    @andyfreist

    Ah, actually, that was a mistake on my end for not clarifying.. The reason there are different numbers on the sheet is because some criteria has more “weight” than others.. This is called a “weighted decision matrix”.. Also, the sheet was updated after the videos were filmed, hence the mention of 1-10 ๐Ÿ˜‰

    For instance, how much you love a topic is important, but not as important as how much business viability it has (if you are trying to build a profitable business). Hence why “how much you love it” is 1-20 — and profitability potential is 1-50.. Of course we are all in the business of doing what we love, but profitability needs to be a priority to ensure sustainability.

    As for the expertise critera – you dont need to be an expert in a subject to create a transformative course. You can leverage other experts, or learn enough to teach it.. Hence why its also not quite as important.

    Best,
    Andy

    #10683

    Lorraine Watson
    Adventurer
    @lorrainewatson

    @andyfreist the weightings are a good way to add emphasis to the questions. From personal observation, it’s easy to say we’re all in the business of doing what we love, but often we end up doing things for profitability that take us away from what we really want to be focusing on. When emphasis on money outweighs passion, excitement can quickly turn to drudgery. Been there. Sometimes what we are here to bring into the world takes a bit longer, or is before its optimal time to be heard. Expertise definitely carries the least weighting, and yet it is the belief of “who am I to …” that holds most of us back.

    #11250

    Andy Freist
    Mountain Guide
    @andyfreist

    True – I totally agree..

    It’s such a fine balance! And ultimately we’re all looking for that thing that is a YES on all fronts.

    Thanks for your input, as its certainly helping us to refine the system. It is always welcome.

    This conversation is definitely shedding light on the fact that the “how excited are you” criteria deserves a bit more weight ๐Ÿ˜‰

    #11886

    JoAnn Turner
    Adventurer
    @JoAnnTurnip

    I found this to be a really valuable exercise. Even though I had 4 (out of 9) ideas that ended up fairly close, two really stood out in the final scores, and those are the ones I’ll be looking at developing.

    Just a comment from a couple of us non-math types (my buddy and I discussed this in our weekly check-in yesterday), in future something more visually interesting and fun than a spreadsheet might be better. My own associations with spreadsheets are, at best, nothing at all. At worst, really negative, like a bad day at work trying to fathom a concept and accounting program that seems utterly foreign to anything my brain has ever faced, and feeling inadequate as a result. My buddy has even less experience with spreadsheets than I do, and was inclined to give the exercise a miss as a result. I extolled the virtues of the process and said it really is worthwhile so she’s going to try it.

    We thought something more gamified would be better, like a game app concept. Or something more restricted in usage, so it only has the fields you need to do this exercise and the formula in the last column to get the result, nothing else. It can be very scary to scroll left or down and suddenly, you’re all the way to Column x or down to Row YY. If someone has never used a spreadsheet before, they won’t know what just happened or how to fix it. And there ARE people who have, indeed, never used them! Believe it or not! ๐Ÿ™‚

    I don’t know how easy it would be to do that. Or maybe you just need an extra optional help or support section for those who haven’t used a spreadsheet to consult so they understand how it will work.

    So it’s a very useful tool within the course, the functionality is great, it just needs to be somehow more user-friendly. Maybe Greebly the Gruesome Gremlin can enter our scores and jump up with the final tally in his mouth or something! Maybe little ladybugs crawl all over the page and converge on the highest scores. I don’t know, I’m just making this up! But something less like, *gasp*, accounting or the less fun side of computers and more like the storyline you’ve already got going for our trek up the mountain.

    #12523

    Deb Robson
    Adventurer
    @robson

    Thanks for asking this, JoAnn. Back to my spreadsheet: I did 1-10 across. And I’m already several steps beyond its creation, with several items closely ranked.

    #12532

    Bradley Morris
    Mountain Guide
    @bradleytmorris

    I agree @joannturnip, @andyfreist and I could create something a little more visually appealing and fun than a little old spreadsheet. Coming soon to a Mountain near you!

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.