How to use the nominal group technique for better group decisions

Key takeaways

• The nominal group technique is a method for group brainstorming that gives everyone equal input and prevents louder voices from dominating the conversation.

• This method works best when teams need to prioritize ideas, solve complex problems, or reach consensus on important decisions. 

• The process involves five core steps: defining the problem, silent idea generation, round-robin sharing, group discussion, and private voting. 

• Using Confluence whiteboards during nominal group technique sessions helps teams document ideas in real-time and turn group decisions into actionable plans. 

• While the nominal group technique takes more time than casual brainstorming, it can yield better outcomes and clearer priorities. 

Getting a group to agree on priorities can feel impossible. Some people dominate the conversation while others stay quiet. Good ideas get lost in debate, and meetings end without clear decisions. The nominal group technique addresses these problems by creating a structured process in which every voice matters equally. 

So, what is the nominal group technique exactly? This article covers what the nominal group technique is, when to use it, and how to run effective sessions with your team. 

What is the nominal group technique?

The nominal group technique is a brainstorming method that helps teams generate and prioritize ideas fairly. Unlike traditional brainstorming, where people shout out ideas as they come to mind, this approach follows a set of steps to ensure everyone participates equally. 

Participants start by writing down their ideas silently before any discussion. Then everyone shares their ideas in turn, one at a time. After all ideas are on the table, the group discusses them to clarify their meanings. Finally, people vote privately on which ideas matter most. 

This structure prevents the usual brainstorming pitfalls where a few confident voices drive the entire conversation. 

Benefits of the nominal group technique

The nominal group technique addresses common frustrations teams face when making group decisions. The benefits include: 

• Equal participation: Everyone gets the same chance to share ideas, regardless of their role or personality type. Silent idea generation means extroverts don’t drown out introverts, and junior team members can contribute confidently alongside senior staff. 

• Organized discussions: The round-robin format keeps conversations focused and productive. Instead of jumping between topics, teams work through each suggestion systematically. 

• More objective decision-making: Private voting removes social pressure from the final decision. People can rank ideas by merit rather than by who suggested them, leading to choices that reflect the group’s true priorities. 

• Diverse perspectives: The silent generation phase encourages unique thinking because others’ ideas don’t immediately influence people. Teams surface options they might never have considered in a traditional meeting. 

• Actionable outcomes: The voting step produces a clear, ranked list that tells teams exactly where to focus their effort. 

When to use the nominal group technique

The nominal group technique works best when your team needs clear priorities or consensus on important decisions. Situations where you might use the technique include: 

• Project planning: When starting a new initiative, use this technique to identify key milestones, potential obstacles, or features to build. It helps cross-functional teams align on what matters most. 

• Resource allocation: When you have a limited budget, time, or people, this method helps teams decide where to focus. The private voting step ensures decisions are based on merit rather than who has the most influence. 

• Problem-solving: Complex problems benefit from diverse perspectives. The nominal group technique ensures all team members contribute potential solutions before evaluating which approaches are most feasible. 

• Risk identification: Use this technique to surface risks the team might face. The silent generation phase helps people flag concerns they might hesitate to raise in open discussion. 

• Strategy decisions: When leadership teams need to align on quarterly goals or product roadmaps, this technique creates consensus without endless debate. It fits naturally into project collaboration workflows, especially when decisions affect multiple stakeholders. 

The core steps involved in running a nominal group technique session

Following the nominal group technique steps in order ensures fairness and efficiency during sessions. Each phase builds toward consensus-based decisions that reflect the group’s collective wisdom. 

1. Define the problem or decision the group will address

Start with a clear, focused question or problem statement. The facilitator should write the question where everyone can see it and confirm that the group understands what they’re trying to decide. 

Good problem statements are specific enough to guide thinking but open enough to allow diverse solutions. For example, “How can we reduce customer support ticket volume?” works better than “How can we improve customer experience?”

2. Allow time for silent idea generation to encourage creativity

Give participants 5-10 minutes to write down their ideas independently, without discussion. This step minimizes bias and encourages unique perspectives. When people brainstorm silently, they’re not influenced by groupthink or anchored to the first ideas shared.

Teams can use online whiteboards or a brainstorming template to capture ideas during this phase. Confluence whiteboards work well for remote teams because everyone can see the shared space while contributing independently. Plus, if your team needs help getting started, they can brainstorm with Rovo in Confluence to create a smart card that collects information on your topic and helps everyone get aligned. 

3. Share ideas one at a time in a round-robin format

Have participants take turns presenting one idea at a time, with the facilitator recording them on a shared board or document. Go around the room until everyone has shared all their ideas. This format ensures every voice is heard and prevents dominant personalities from taking over.

No discussion or critique is allowed during this step. The goal is to get all ideas visible to the group.

4. Clarify and discuss each idea as a group with a focus on understanding

Once all ideas are recorded, open the floor for discussion. The purpose is to clarify meaning, merge similar ideas, and ensure everyone understands each option, not to debate which ideas are best.

Encourage everyone to ask questions and suggest how related ideas might be combined. The facilitator should maintain a neutral tone and keep discussions focused on understanding. This phase helps build a collaborative culture where people feel heard.

Confluence whiteboards make this step easier by allowing teams to visually group related ideas and connect concepts. Use the group-related feature on stickies to organize ideas into themes automatically and make patterns easier to spot. Confluence’s collaborative features support real-time knowledge sharing across distributed teams.

5. Privately vote or rank ideas to identify top priorities

Have participants vote or rank ideas based on agreed criteria, such as feasibility, impact, or alignment with goals. Private voting makes decision-making more objective.

Common approaches include giving each person a set number of votes to distribute across their top choices, or asking everyone to rank their top 5-10 ideas in order. Using a prioritization matrix can help teams evaluate ideas against multiple criteria. The facilitator tallies the results to determine which ideas received the most support, creating a prioritized action plan.

Once voting is complete, use Confluence’s summarize and create features to let AI capture the key points, decisions, and next steps from your entire board. You can instantly create a Confluence page from that summary, turning your session into documented action items. 

Potential drawbacks of using the nominal group technique

While the nominal group technique produces better outcomes than unstructured meetings, it’s not perfect for every situation. Understanding the limitations helps teams decide when this method makes sense.

• Time investment: Running through all five steps can take 60-90 minutes, especially with larger groups. That time pays off for important decisions, but it might be unnecessary for quick choices that don’t require full consensus.

• Need for skilled facilitation: Someone needs to keep the group on track, enforce the process, and maintain neutrality throughout the session. Without a strong facilitator, sessions can drag on or devolve into the same dynamics this technique is designed to prevent.

• Limited spontaneity: The method can feel rigid compared to more creative brainstorming techniques. The step-by-step structure limits organic discussion and the natural flow of ideas. When groups are already aligned or working on highly creative problems, looser formats work better.

Example of the nominal group technique in action

Here’s how a team might use the nominal group technique to make a difficult prioritization decision:

Let’s say a product team at a B2B software company needs to prioritize customer feedback for their next release cycle. They have dozens of feature requests and can’t build everything, so they use the nominal group technique to reach consensus.

The product manager defines the problem: “Which three customer-requested features should we prioritize for Q2 based on potential impact and feasibility?” This gives the team a clear scope.

During silent idea generation, team members review the feedback log and write down their top choices. The engineering lead focuses on features that would reduce technical debt. The customer success manager highlights requests from key accounts.

In the round-robin phase, each person presents one feature while the facilitator captures it on a Confluence whiteboard. They end up with 12 distinct features.

The discussion phase reveals that three features are actually variations of the same request. The team merges those into one item and clarifies the scope of the other two.

Finally, each member privately ranks their top five features. The facilitator tallies the votes and finds clear agreement on the top three priorities. 

Use Confluence whiteboards to capture, rank, and act on your best ideas

Confluence whiteboards give teams a visual workspace to run nominal group technique sessions from anywhere, along with AI capabilities to keep everything organized. 

During brainstorming, Rovo can generate smart cards to collect information and align everyone before diving into ideas. As discussions progress, AI automatically groups related stickies into themes. When the session wraps up, the summarize and create feature captures key points, decisions, and next steps, then turns that summary into a Confluence page.

Ranked priorities stay in Confluence where teams can assign owners, set timelines, and track progress. Integrations with Jira and Trello mean your group’s decisions flow into execution workflows.