Example data. Fieldnote is a fictional company used to fill all 61 boards, so the examples tell one consistent story.
Post-PMF Fieldnote, end of the ideation week: 11 people, 3 dots each, on the four ideas left standing.
What the team took away
Option B took 5 of 11 first dots and Option A 3. Both went to the experiment board; C and D wait for the next round.
How to run it
Preparation
Only the people who took part in the divergent session. Adding a stakeholder at vote time changes the dynamics.
The options on the board, deduplicated and numbered. If two stickies say the same thing, merge before the vote or the votes split.
Decide the number of dots: a third of the number of options, rounded down, three minimum. Say it before the vote.
Agree on the criterion in one sentence: 'most likely to move retention', not 'best'.
Agenda
4 min
Read the options Someone reads every option aloud, one sentence each. Clarifying questions only, no advocacy.
5 min
Vote in silence Everyone places their dots at the same time. Allowed: multiple dots on one option. Not allowed: watching where others put theirs first.
3 min
Read the result Count. Show the top 3 to 5. If the top is a tie, do not revote; the decider breaks it.
3 min
Decide The decider states the pick and one sentence of reasoning. The vote is input; the decider owns the outcome.
Pitfalls
Do not vote on 30 options. Cluster first, or the winner gets four dots and means nothing.
Do not let the most senior person vote first. Silent, simultaneous, or the vote measures hierarchy.
Do not treat the count as the decision. Say clearly who decides, or the group thinks it was a democracy and resents the outcome.
Afterwards
The selected options go to the impact / effort matrix, a prototype, or the experiment board. Write the result on the board with the criterion used, so nobody rewrites history next week.