I’ll change directions today and write about a technique Increo has found extremely useful when making decisions between a large number of choices with a large group of people with varied (and sometimes strong) opinions.

Increo has used this technique extensively for names (Increo Solutions, Backboard, Increo Suite) and even to narrow down interview candidates from a large pool of applicants.

1. Make a long list of all the possibilities. Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm.
2. Remove anything that everyone agrees does not make sense.
3. For each possibility, have everyone vote whether they like it or not. Each person has unlimited votes, and voting decisions should be based on first impressions.
4. Go through the entire list, then remove half the possibilities–those with the fewest votes.
5. Repeat until only one option is left.

Essentially this results in the result that is okay with everyone–usually not a favorite of anyone on the team, but something everyone can live with. And, even better, from my experience, the results tend to grow on you. I look back at the other potential names for Increo, and I’m awfully glad we discarded them.

Thanks to Sarah Arora for first suggesting this technique.