Proposal of a Method to Clarify and Enhance Decision-making at the Front-end of Innovation

Decision-making at the front-end of innovation is critical for the success of companies. This paper presents a simple visual method, called DMCA (Decision-Making Criteria Assessment), which was created to clarify and improve decision-making at the front-end of innovation. The method maps the uncertainty of project information and importance of decision criteria, compiling a measure that indicates whether the decision is highly uncertain, what information interferes with it, and what criteria are actually being considered. The DMCA method was tested in two projects that faced decision-making issues, and the results confirm the benefits of using this method in decision-making at the front-end.