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How to use dot voting efficiently in your next workshop

Sandy Lam
Dallas Design Sprints
7 min readJun 14, 2019
Facilitation gets easier when you get your hands dirty

When I first started facilitating Design Sprints and Design Thinking workshops, one of the more challenging things was to decide which voting method to use. As I gained more facilitating experience with each engagement, I’ve developed a “gut feeling” about what works the best for particular situations.

However, gut feelings are abstract. As a Facilitator who aims to solve problems with structure, I was hungry for a more concrete explanation.

I turned to Google for some potential answers. Surprisingly, I didn’t find anything on this topic.

Therefore, I decided to go to the source and ask the Design Sprint inventor Jake Knapp. Coincidently, a Design Sprint Q&A webinar, organized by AJ&Smart, was taking place during that week. “What a chance!”, I said to myself.

Ryan de Metz (left) and Jake Knapp (right) during the AJ&Smart Design Sprint Masterclass Q&A session

There are four main voting methods typically used in a design sprint workshop facilitation. Most of them serve the same purpose: To inform the group (or the “Decider”, or both) on everyone’s collective opinion on the topic or concept being considered.

Method 1: Note-and-vote

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Dallas Design Sprints
Dallas Design Sprints

Published in Dallas Design Sprints

I train individuals, teams and companies on how to effectively use the design sprint process. I also enjoy highlighting other professionals and practitioners in the field, and feature their stories here on Medium.

Sandy Lam
Sandy Lam

Written by Sandy Lam

Product Manager, facilitator, and constant learner. My purpose 🎯 To surface our uniqueness so that we can unlock the power of together.

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