The dimensions, and their weightings, against which competing options or bids are scored. The place where a selection decision is actually encoded, before any scoring happens.
Scoring feels like the objective part of an evaluation, but it sits downstream of the subjective part: someone chose what counts and by how much, and that choice usually decides the winner.
Last reviewed 3 July 2026 · Free and ungated
Before the scores are locked, selected senior operators can challenge what your criteria reward and what they miss.
Pressure-test your shortlistEvaluation criteria are the stated dimensions on which the options in a selection (vendors, proposals, investment options, candidates) will be judged, usually with weightings that convert individual judgements into a comparable score. A typical procurement set covers capability, approach, team, commercials, risk and cultural fit, with the weightings summing to a scoring model.
Weightings are the decision. Set price at 40 per cent and you have chosen the cheap bid before opening an envelope; set transformation experience at 25 per cent and you have chosen the large incumbent. Neither is wrong, but both are choices, and they deserve the scrutiny the scoring meeting gets. The discipline that protects the outcome is sequence: criteria and weightings agreed, in writing, before responses arrive. Agreed afterwards, they become a justification engine for whichever option the room already prefers.