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Decision Tools

Route Comparison Scorecard: Score Three Routes Before You Commit

Five filters, three routes, one score each. Not to pick your life — to pick which route you test first.

Compare routes While comparing
R

Best for

Anyone circling two or three routes without a way to compare them side by side.

Not best for

Anyone with one specific program already in mind. Run the Program Red Flag Checklist on it instead.

When to use it

When you've narrowed the field to a few routes but keep changing your mind about which one.

When not to use it

Don't treat the total as a verdict. A three-point gap means something; a one-point gap means you guessed.

How it fits the route system

This is the route test itself, one criterion per filter: Real Cost, Timeline, Fit, Local Proof, Risk. It runs before any program-level research.

Common mistake

Scoring on how a route feels rather than what you've verified. If you can't say where a score came from, it's a mood, not data. Score low when you don't know — an unknown is a real risk, not a neutral one.

Score each route on each filter, then total the columns. Score 1 to 5: 1 means weak fit, 3 means unclear or acceptable, 5 means strong fit.

You are not choosing your life here. You are choosing which route to test first.

Filter Criteria Route A Route B Route C
Real Cost Upfront cost fits my budget
Timeline Timeline fits my life
Fit First realistic job is clear
Local Proof Local employers value this proof
Risk Risk level is acceptable
TOTAL

Your decision

Temporary, by design. Fill these in once the columns are totalled:

  • Route I’m testing first: ______________
  • Backup route: ______________
  • First thing I must verify: ______________

Five criteria are enough to separate three routes that felt equally plausible an hour ago. They are not enough to separate two routes that end up two points apart — that gap usually means the comparison needs more criteria, not more thinking. The Guided Route System runs ten criteria across five routes, with the scoring rules that make a close call readable.

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