What the Voting tab is
Voting is a grid of stakeholders against needs. Each cell is one stakeholder’s rating of one need, from 1 (low) to 5 (critical). It is the step that makes Weighted planning weighted: a need’s importance is the weighted average of these ratings, and every downstream number depends on it. Ratings arrive two ways, and the matrix shows both: stakeholders enter their own in the voting portal, or you enter them on a stakeholder’s behalf. A small icon marks which is which.Entering a rating yourself
Hover over a cell to preview the value under the cursor, then click a dot. The bar takes that value’s colour and only the chosen dot shows its number.- Click the abstain control on a cell when the stakeholder has no view on that need. An abstention counts as an answer for completion but is left out of every average.
- Add a comment to a cell to record the reasoning behind a rating. A comment on an unrated cell does not cast a rating.
- Click the chosen dot again to clear the rating.
The stakeholder portal
An invited stakeholder opens their private link and lands on a list of your project’s needs, in your project’s vocabulary, each with its description and a 1 to 5 scale. They can:- rate each need, with every click saved immediately
- abstain with N/A on a need they have no view on
- leave a comment on any need
- press I’m done voting when finished, which marks them as submitted on your side
- come back and revise until you lock voting, or clear all their ratings and start again
Completion
The line under the tab title reports completion: the share of stakeholder and need pairs that have an answer, a rating or an abstention. Alongside it, for invited stakeholders, how many have viewed, started and submitted. Completion is what the outputs wait for. Analysis, Roadmap, Allocation and the Decision Report unlock when every need that a feature links to has at least one answer, and the locked tab’s tooltip names the needs still waiting.Locking and clearing
Lock voting closes the round: stakeholders can no longer submit or revise, and the matrix becomes read-only. The portal tells them voting is closed and that their answers are kept. Unlock at any time. Clear votes deletes ratings, with a choice of scope: only the ratings you entered yourself, or every rating in the project. Comments go with their ratings. This cannot be undone, and it is unavailable while voting is locked.Tips
- Needs added after voting started show as unanswered for everyone. Resend the invite, or just tell stakeholders the list grew; their link still works.
- If two stakeholders disagree sharply on a need, the Analysis tab will flag every feature that delivers it as mixed or disputed and can explain the disagreement. That is a conversation to have before the review, not during it.
- A stakeholder who has submitted can still edit their ratings until you lock. Lock before you generate the report you intend to share.