Secret Vote

Blind Dot Voting

What is the Secret Vote workshop tactic?

This tactic guides you through making democratic decisions as a group. It allows you to eliminate all but one idea from the running, or find the top three ideas.

Help the team make decisions together, without being led by any one individual (the 'bandwagon effect'). Secret voting neutralises any dominating personalities or opinions in the decision-making process.


Secret Vote Miro Template


How to use Secret Vote in your workshop

1. With a marker, clearly number each of the things you want the group to decide on. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

2. Ensure the group understands what they are going to vote on by allowing time for each person to explain the items up for vote.

3. Explain that each person has three votes each, to use in any way they like. You’re allowed to vote on your own items, or put all three votes on one thing!

4. Ask each person in the group to write down the numbers of the items they are voting for on a sticky note.

5. Once voting is finished, retrieve the votes from the participants. Count the votes and write the quantities on the items so everyone can clearly see the result of the voting.

6. If your items are ideas, consider developing them further with T-Bar Format or Storyboard.

Origin: Google Ventures

Not sure if this is the right approach for your team at the moment? Try a different decision-making tactic. Once you know which direction your team should take, use a discussion tactic to help facilitate your team’s progress together.

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Secret Vote is one of 54 workshop recipe cards inside the Workshop Tactics card deck.

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