What is it particularly suitable for

• For effective and fast sorting of multiple objects on post-its or index cards, such as topic suggestions and ideas
• To quickly uncover consensus/dissent on content within a group

Why we love it

• Magic Estimation reveals in a very efficient way common or different opinions of a group and that in silence, without any speeches and exhausting discussions.
• The time saved in the sorting process allows the group to calmly and specifically address the points of disagreement or need for discussion.
• Magic Estimation brings variety to the eternal score-keeping that is often seen in workshops as the only way to sort things by relevance or potential, for example.
• Another great thing about Magic Estimation is that every object is taken into account. Imagine a wall with 100 post-its and an idea on each one. When sticking dots on the wall, many ideas would fall completely under the table because they don't get any points. That doesn't happen with Magic Estimation.

Possible procedure

Let's stay with the example above. You have 100 post-its on the wall with story ideas for the new communication campaign. With the help of Magic Estimation you can sort this wall in a short time:

• First, as the facilitator, you and the team establish an evaluation scale or matrix. What criteria should be used to rank the story ideas? A scale could be: "Relevance of the story idea for customers: None, Little, Medium, High".
• Now the 100 post-its are divided equally among the workshop participants and everyone sorts their pile on the scale. This step is done silently.
• After that, all workshop participants look at all the cards and re-sort them if they think they should hang somewhere else. This step is also done silently. In the meantime, you as the facilitator mark the cards that have moved once or several times, e.g. by putting a dot on the Post-it.
• When the "magical" card movement has come to an end, point out the cards that have changed places especially often. Discuss each one individually: Did participants perhaps have different understandings of the story idea, or are there actually different views of relevance and implementation effort? This is where the different opinions of the group are discussed in a very focused way.

Insider tips or "this is what we think is important".

• Sometimes the wandering of the cards does not come naturally to an end. Then the moderator should intervene and stop the card sorting.
• With this method, the moderator needs to have a certain sense of what kind of discussion is needed on the "wandering cards".
• It is crucial to define the sorting criteria together with the workshop participants so that everyone has the same idea of the different levels.

Attitude

Sorting together is the ideal foundation for a substantial discussion.

By the way: For a better readability we change the gender form per method.