1/3/2018 Dot-voting - Wikipedia

Dot­voting
Dot­voting (also known as
dotmocracy[1] or voting  with
dots[2]) is an established
facilitation method used to describe
voting with dot stickers or marks
with a marker pen.[3][4]

In dot-voting participants vote on

their chosen options using a limited
number of stickers or marks with Dot-voting with stickers
pens — dot stickers being the most
common. This sticker voting
approach is a form of cumulative voting.

Contents
Process specifics
History
Benefits
Criticism
See also
References

Process specifics
The dot-voting process includes the following steps:

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Participants are each given a set number of dot stickers (as decided by
the facilitator)
They place dot stickers next to options presented that they like (they may
place any number of their dots on any number of the options)
Options with the most dots at the end of voting “win”
Variations include:

using different colour dots to signify different values, e.g. green for "like"
and red for "dislike".
using different colour dots for different types of participants e.g. blue for
management and red for staff.

History
The origins of dot-voting are unclear. Professional facilitators have been said
to use it since the 1980s.

Dot-voting is now widely used for making quick collaborative decisions by

teams adopting agile and lean methodologies. For example, it’s one of the
methods endorsed by the 18F digital services agency of the United States'
General Services Administration,[5] and it’s part of the Design Sprint
methodology.

Benefits
Dot-voting is a quick and simple method for prioritize a long list of options.

It’s less cognitively demanding than having to perform a full ranking of all the
options, because participants are not required to give a comparative judgment
of each option, and it allows participants to express a preference for more than
one option at the same time.[6]

It leverages the collective wisdom of the team, and provides an equal way for
all the voices on the team to be heard and have accountability in prioritizing
key issues.[7]

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It also creates a sense of engagement and allows participants to see the

decision process in action and understand how the final choice was made.[8]

Criticism
Dot-voting has been criticized for limiting creativity and diversity of ideas, and
giving confusing or false results. Dot-voting is like a one question multiple-
choice survey done with stickers.

Participants are expected to review, consider and compare all options before
sticking their dots. As a result, too many options can be overwhelming
(overchoice aka choice overload) and thus facilitators are encouraged to
amalgamate and generalize unique ideas into broader and less specific
concepts.

New options cannot be added once dotting has started, as this would not be
fair to the new additions.

Similar or related options are penalized, as these can cause vote-splitting.

Participants can easily cheat by adding extra dots, peeling off dots or moving
dots.

Often people will simply add their dots where everyone else has dotted,
without considering their own opinion on all the options, thus an example of
the Bandwagon effect.

It is also impossible to tell if a result represent broad popularity (because many

people gave one dot), or a enthusiastic minority (where a few people gave
many dots).

Overall all results are not reliable.

You can avoid some of these issues, such as cheating and social influence-
Bandwagon effect, by using digital dot-voting applications.[6]

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See also
cumulative voting

References
1. Explanation of the Toronto Community Housing participatory budgeting
process. (http://www.torontohousing.ca/participatory_budgeting) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20091211185446/http://www.torontohousing.
ca/participatory_budgeting) December 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
2. A compiled thread from a discussion on the Electronic Discussion on
Group Facilitation, 20 December 2000. (http://www.albany.edu/cpr/gf/reso
urces/Voting_with_dots.html)
3. Tabaka, Jean (2006-01-16). Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for
Software Project Leaders (https://www.amazon.com/Collaboration-Explain
ed-Facilitation-Software-Project/dp/0321268776) (1 ed.). Addison-Wesley
Professional. p. 129. ISBN 9780321268778.
4. "Group Brainstorming: Dot Voting with a Difference | Innovation
Management" (http://www.innovationmanagement.se/imtool-articles/group
-brainstorming-dot-voting-with-a-difference/).
www.innovationmanagement.se. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
5. "Dot voting" (https://methods.18f.gov/discover/feature-dot-voting/). 18F.
Retrieved 2017-07-13.
6. "How to make better group decision with Dot voting" (https://mindiply.com/
blog/post/how-to-make-better-group-decision-with-dot-voting). Retrieved
2017-07-13.
7. "Dot Voting – Evaluating Ideas, Prioritizing Action | TCGen" (http://tcgen.c
om/dot-voting-evaluating-ideas-prioritizing-action/). TCGen. 2011-05-23.
Retrieved 2017-07-13.
8. "How to perfect the facilitation tool, "sticky dot voting" " (http://msue.anr.ms
u.edu/news/how_to_perfect_the_facilitation_tool_sticky_dot_voting). MSU
Extension. Retrieved 2017-07-13.

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