Decision Matrices

Mathematics is a "gift that never stops giving" and one element from the infinite gift set of Mathematics is Matrices. At some point, we all have come across theoretical approaches for constructing Matrices and used operations, transformations on Matrices for helping us get through high school and graduate level Mathematics.

If we think about why this is taught and what are the practical applications of Matrices in real life we will be amazed to find ourselves with another infinite set being constructed !! From image processing to powering digital circuits that help in capturing images, from machine learning to constructing machines, the applications of using Matrices in practical world are endless.

Today, I will be touching upon an extremely important aspect that our brain needs to do multiple times a day -> "decision making" and how we can build a framework for decision making which draws inspiration from matrices.

Decision making according to me is an additive function that is both an art as well as a science. Making decisions can be challenging and taxing because our brain has to weigh in multiple parameters, fight biases, make the right trade-offs and prevent emotions from shrouding our decisions.

In addition to this challenging process, we also fear about the outcomes of regretting our decisions at a time in future and often times this can lead to indecisions and also push us to completely avoid making decisions.

Let us take a look at the step by step process of using a decision matrix in order to make a decision. Imagine we want to recruit a new engineer on the team. The decision to make in this case is choosing the most suitable engineer from a group of engineers undergoing the interview process.

1.Identify decision parameters : Determine the important parameters for making our hiring decision. Based on the role and responsibilities for the role, let us assume we are using a) Problem solving, b) Cultural fit, c) Experience , d) Communication and e) Technical skills as our decision parameters.

2. Assign weights to parameters : Rate each decision parameter on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important parameter. For our case we will assign 5 to Problem solving followed by 4 to Cultural fit and the rest of the order follows the sequence of the parameters mentioned above. The decision parameters and the weights assigned to each parameter plus their number can vary based on the nature of the open position we are hiring for. In this case we value "Problem solving" and "Culture fit" more than other parameters which is reflected from the assigned weights. The initial state of the decision matrix will look as follows :

3. Assign scores for each parameter : Based on the performance of the engineers in interviews, assign a score for each parameter. The assignment of scores is again flexible. For this example lets choose a range from 1 to 5.

4. Multiply scores by weights and calculate Total score : Now go ahead and multiply scores with weights for each parameter. This will provide us with a number that will help us evaluate how well an engineer has scored on a particular decision parameter. The Total score for each engineer can then be obtained by adding the scores for each decision parameter. The final state of the decision matrix will look like this in our case. From the Total scores, we can see that Engineer 1 seems to be the right hire for this position.

To conclude, our personal and professional lives are filled with moments where we have to make decisions which involves choosing a best option between various options available. If we want to make sure the option we choose is effective, data-driven, carefully evaluated considering all the parameters + trade-offs and negates emotions + biases we should use the power of decision matrices. Furthermore, this process also ensures that we maintain clarity and consistency in our decision making when we have to take similar decisions multiple times.