# Ideate
# Cursor Vote
- Purpose
- Virtually evaluate and select ideas
- Time required
- 10 to 40 minutes
- Participants
- Design Thinking team
- Level of experience
- Beginner
# What is it about?
The cursor vote is a simple method for obtaining a joint vote in an online setting (e.g. when working on a digital whiteboard) from the individual views of the workshop participants/a team, for example on a prioritization or classification in a 2x2 matrix.
# The goal
The goal is to categorize ideas or statements quickly and easily.
# How to do it?
- Define the criteria according to which a categorization is to be made (e.g. solution approaches according to Wow-How-Now-Matrix).
- The first idea/statement to be evaluated is announced/presented.
- Each participant places his/her own cursor where he/she thinks the position in the matrix should be. This happens without discussion.
- A ‘heat map’ of cursors is created, from which a common picture can be derived.
- If the common position is not clear, a short discussion is initiated by asking the two people with the most distant positions about their motives, then the cursor vote is repeated.
- Repeat until all ideas/statements are positioned.
# When do you need it?
This method is suitable following the divergent idea generation phase. It is used, for example, when there is a large pool of ideas that need to be structured and pre-selected. Existing ideas can also be combined or summarized during the discussion.
# Resources
- digital whiteboard
# Advantages
As the axes are highly modifiable, the matrix offers great flexibility for different decision-making situations.
# Disadvantages
If the method is carried out in a team, different assessments can lead to long discussions. Participants may develop a tendency to defend their own ideas. A moderator is helpful here. The matrix can also lead to unusable results if unsuitable axis parameters are chosen.
# Keep in mind
Make sure that the cursor votes are silent, i.e. that they are not influenced by previous discussions/comments. This is a virtual version of Dotmocracy.
# See also
| Previous methods | Alternative methods | Following methods |