Creating a tool to rank your ideas helps prioritize tasks, refine concepts, and focus on what truly matters. Here’s a structured, customizable idea-ranking tool you can use for personal brainstorming, team meetings, or product development:
🛠️ Idea Ranking Tool
Step 1: List All Your Ideas
Create a simple list of ideas you’d like to evaluate. Number them for easy reference.
Example:
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Launch a podcast
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Start a YouTube channel
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Create an online course
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Write a blog series
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Develop a mobile app
Step 2: Choose Evaluation Criteria
Select 4–6 criteria based on your goals. Common ones include:
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Impact – How valuable is the idea to your goals or audience?
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Effort – How much time/resources are needed?
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Profitability – How much money could it generate?
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Uniqueness – How original or differentiated is the idea?
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Scalability – Can it grow easily?
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Personal Excitement – How motivated are you to pursue it?
Step 3: Score Each Idea
Use a 1–5 scale (1 = low, 5 = high) to rate each idea under each criterion.
Idea | Impact | Effort (inverse) | Profitability | Uniqueness | Excitement | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Launch a podcast | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 19 |
2. Start a YouTube channel | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 17 |
3. Create an online course | 5 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 20 |
4. Write a blog series | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 18 |
5. Develop a mobile app | 4 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 17 |
Tip: You can invert the Effort score so lower effort gets a higher score.
Step 4: Rank Your Ideas
Sort by total score from highest to lowest. The top-ranked ideas are your best candidates to pursue first.
Optional: Add Weighting to Criteria
If some criteria matter more, assign weight values (e.g., Impact = 30%, Effort = 20%) and calculate weighted scores for each idea.
Example formula:
Use a spreadsheet for easy calculation and visualization.
Step 5: Decide and Act
Review the top 1–3 ranked ideas and outline action steps. You can even set deadlines and assign tasks if working in a team.
Bonus: Template (Manual or Digital)
Create your tool in:
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Google Sheets/Excel – Use formulas for scoring and sorting
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Notion – Create a database with columns for criteria and filters
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Airtable – Add rich fields like file uploads and tags
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Pen & Paper – Great for quick brainstorming
This tool streamlines decision-making and prevents analysis paralysis by adding clarity and structure to your ideation process.
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