The number of options you present matters.
The number can determine the reaction or response you get from the room.
When you present three options, the decision maker will work to take the good out of each and combine them. This method works when the decision maker is also a content creator (your colleague, perhaps). If it were a client or your boss, three options isn’t the way to go. Two is.
When you present two options, the decision maker has a benchmark of quality to base one off of. The mentality of choosing one over another is gratifying – the decision maker feels in control.
When you present one option, it’s the decision maker’s instinct to figure out what’s wrong with it. Presenting one option is asking for feedback (and often not the good kind).
I was explained it this way: If you’re a book cover designer and you go into a room and show one book cover design, the room is going to hack at it. They’re going to search for what they don’t like. If you go in with two book cover designs, the room is going to rank them and subsequently look for what they like more in one over the other.
Consider this the next time you present ideas.
Stay Positive & Maybe Present Two
Photo credit
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