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Dot Voting

Give everyone a fixed number of votes and let the group decide what matters most. Fast, visual, and bias-resistant prioritization for any team.

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No account required. Share a code and you are in. Password-protected rooms supported.

What is dot voting?

Dot voting (also called dotmocracy or multi-voting) is a facilitation technique where each participant receives a limited number of votes to distribute across a list of options. You can put all your votes on one item or spread them across several - the choice reflects your priorities.

The power is in the constraints. Because votes are limited, people are forced to make real trade-offs instead of marking everything as important. The result is a ranked list that reflects the group's true priorities, not just the loudest voice in the room.

Why teams use dot voting

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Equal voice for everyone

Every person gets the same number of votes. Seniority and title do not determine influence - the best ideas win based on collective preference.

Fast decisions

No lengthy debates before a decision. Add items, open voting, reveal results. The whole process takes minutes, not hours.

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Forces real trade-offs

Limited votes mean people cannot mark everything as top priority. You get honest signal about what actually matters most to the group.

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Visual and transparent

Results are immediately visible and ranked by total votes. Everyone can see what the group chose and why, with no ambiguity.

When to use dot voting

Real scenarios software teams run into every sprint.

Sprint retrospective - picking actions

After generating a long list of improvement ideas, use dot voting to identify the two or three actions the team will actually commit to this sprint. Keeps retros outcome-focused.

Backlog prioritization workshop

When the backlog has too many candidates for the next sprint and the team needs to agree on what goes in. Everyone votes on which items deliver the most value right now.

Feature brainstorm triage

After a product brainstorm session, use dot voting to quickly surface the ideas worth exploring further before spending time on detailed analysis or prototyping.

Choosing a team name or team agreement topic

For lighter decisions where you need group consensus fast - naming things, picking a retro format, or choosing which working agreement to discuss first.

Roadmap theme selection

When leadership or product teams need to choose between competing quarterly themes or strategic bets, dot voting surfaces the group preference without a long debate.

Tech debt prioritization

Engineers often disagree on which tech debt to tackle first. Dot voting gives every engineer equal say and produces a ranked list the whole team can commit to.

How it works

1

The host creates a room and sets how many votes each person gets (usually 3 to 5).

2

Share the room code with your team. No accounts, no downloads - they join instantly.

3

Everyone adds items to the list: topics, features, ideas, retro actions, anything to prioritize.

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The host opens the voting phase. The item list is now locked.

5

Each person distributes their votes across items. You can stack multiple votes on one item if it is your top priority.

6

Votes are hidden until the host reveals results - no anchoring bias.

7

The host reveals all votes. Items are automatically ranked by total votes.

8

Discuss the top items and decide on next steps together.

Ready to prioritize together?

Create a free room in seconds and invite your team with a code. No account, no setup.

Start a free Dot Voting room