Quick Start: Your First Decision

Welcome to Axiom! Axiom is a methodology tool designed to help you make and track complex decisions transparently.

In this quick start, we will walk through a common scenario: Selecting a Software Vendor.

1. Create your Project

Every decision begins with a Project.

1. Navigate to the left sidebar and click New Project
2. Name your project: "Marketing CRM Selection".
3. A desciription is optional but this is an area where you can define the why and anchor the full project.
4. Choose the scale of your project (only applies to the Weighted decision matrix). There is two options for scale 1-5 and 1-100. Simply put this is the range that your scoring criteria are evaluated on.
5. Finally choose the type of decision that you are making. This cannot be changed later For this guide we are choosing the Weighted decision matrix type

2. Define the Criteria of the project

Criteria are what make or break the robustness of the decision. We recommend being as detailed as possible the both the the amount and detail you put into your Criteria. To help with processing the eveentual options you will create their are two types of Critera

2.1 Elimination Criteria

Elimination Criteria represent absolute deal-breakers. By default, they start in an Unanswered state so you can gather data without immediately penalizing an option. Once you know, you can toggle them to Pass or Fail based on minimum standards.

For example:

1. Click Add Criteria and choose Elimination.
2. Name it: "SOC2 Compliance". This ensures any vendor failing SOC2 is instantly disqualified.

2.2 Scoring Criteria

These criteria are how you evaluate the suitability of and option that does not have a yes or no response. There are two parts to a Scoring criteria that are important.

Description

One of the easy mistakes to make is not defining what good looks like. If you have a 1-5 scale it is really valuable to define what you think a 1 looks like for the criteria

What a descrioption of the "Pricing" Criteria would look like

 Score  Description 
  1  There are unmeatered prices that are not possbile to account for  
  2  The Features we need exceed our budget                            
  3  Out of budget but all our requiremrents are met                   
  4  Within budget but some compormises of features                    
  5  Within budget with zero compormises                              

3. Add your Vendors (Options)

As you explore what is availible in the market to solve your issue you can add as many vendors are needed

Simply:

1. Click Add Option. Name the first one "Vendor Alpha".
2. Add another named "Vendor Beta".

4. Evaluate and Make a Decision

The evaluation process happens on the Evaluate page. Here, you can assign scores to each of the Scoring criteria and confirm the option passes your Elimination criteria.

Or collaboratively:

You can suggest a score and have conversations with your team. Once the scores are locked in, move into the Decision phase, where you can officially document the chosen option, rationale, and collect stakeholder endorsements!

Watch as Axiom automatically calculates the weighted scores and ranks your best option!