Criteria That Survive a Heated Meeting

When stakeholders disagree, the loudest voice often wins. Written criteria change that dynamic. We teach teams to lock must-haves early, separate them from preferences, and score proofs of concept against the same sheet. The goal is not mathematical purity—it is a shared language that keeps the meeting about evidence. In practice sessions, participants rewrite vague criteria like “modern” or “scalable” into observable checks a vendor demo can actually fail.