The Dooey Methodology

A data-driven approach to decision-making that respects the complexity of human emotions and the passage of time.

What is Dooey?

Dooey (a playful contraction of "Do we...?") is a decision-tracking platform designed to help individuals, couples, families, and teams make better choices by observing sentiment trends over time.

Rather than forcing decisions in a single moment of pressure, Dooey recognizes that our feelings fluctuate—and that's okay. The platform helps you capture those fluctuations, visualize them, and ultimately discover your true preferences by smoothing out emotional noise and recency bias.

Core Insight

Big decisions deserve more than a Tuesday afternoon. By tracking sentiment daily over weeks, Dooey reveals patterns that single conversations can't capture.

The Problem We're Solving

Traditional decision-making suffers from several critical flaws:

Emotional Volatility

A bad day at work can make you want to quit your job. A sunny morning can make you want to adopt three puppies. Moods are temporary; decisions often aren't.

Recency Bias

We overweight recent experiences. The argument you had yesterday feels more important than the 50 good days before it.

Social Pressure

In relationships and teams, there's pressure to agree. People say "yes" to avoid conflict, leading to resentment later.

Dooey addresses these problems by introducing time and privacy as first-class features in the decision-making process.

How Dooey Works

1

Frame Your Question

Start by formulating your decision as a clear Yes/No question. Examples:

  • "Should we move to Chicago?"
  • "Do we adopt a dog?"
  • "Should I accept the new job offer?"
  • "Should our team pursue this product feature?"

Set a duration (e.g., 7 days, 14 days, 30 days) and invite participants—your partner, family members, or team.

2

Daily Pulse Tracking

Each day during the tracking period, participants receive a reminder to log their sentiment. They answer:

"How do you feel about [question] today?"

Rate on a scale from 1 (strongly against) to 10 (strongly in favor)

Privacy by default: Responses are private until the tracking period ends. This prevents participants from influencing each other and encourages honest, unfiltered feedback.

3

Visualization & Insights

At the end of the tracking period, Dooey reveals the data in an easy-to-understand visualization showing:

  • Trend lines for each participant over time
  • Average sentiment across the entire period
  • Convergence or divergence—are people aligning on "yes" or "no," or do they disagree?
  • Volatility indicators—how stable are the feelings?

Armed with this data, participants can have a much more productive conversation about the decision.

Guiding Principles

Time Reveals Truth

A single data point is just noise. Multiple data points over time reveal a pattern. Dooey gives decisions the time they deserve.

Privacy Enables Honesty

When responses are private, people can be truthful without fear of judgment or conflict. This leads to more authentic data.

Data Informs, Doesn't Dictate

Dooey provides information, not mandates. The visualization helps you understand the decision landscape, but the final call is always yours.

Alignment Over Agreement

Dooey doesn't force consensus. Instead, it reveals where alignment exists (or doesn't). Sometimes seeing divergence early is the most valuable insight.

Deadlines Prevent Paralysis

By setting a fixed tracking duration, Dooey ensures decisions don't linger indefinitely. When the timer runs out, it's time to decide.

Technical Approach

Data Collection

Dooey uses a simple but powerful data model. Each daily response captures:

  • Sentiment Score (1-10): The participant's feeling toward the decision
  • Timestamp: When the response was recorded
  • Optional Context: Tags like "Tired," "Stressed," "Broke," or "Busy" (available in Dooey Plus)
  • Optional Journal: Free-text notes explaining the "why" behind the score (available in Dooey Plus)

Visualization Strategy

The core of Dooey's value lies in its visualization. Key features include:

  • Line charts showing each participant's sentiment over time
  • Color coding to differentiate participants
  • Trend analysis to identify upward or downward movement
  • Convergence detection to highlight when participants align

Advanced Features (Dooey Plus & Pro)

For users with more complex needs, Dooey offers advanced capabilities:

  • Sentiment Tracking (VibeCheck): Capture emotional energy levels alongside decision sentiment
  • Context Tags: Filter and analyze sentiment based on external factors (mood, stress, finances)
  • Weighted Voting: Assign different importance to different stakeholders (Dooey Pro)
  • Blind Mode: Hide results until a specific date to prevent groupthink (Dooey Pro)

Why We Created Dooey

Dooey was born from a simple observation: important decisions are often made too quickly and under too much pressure.

Whether it's a couple deciding to move cities, a family considering a pet, or a startup evaluating a product pivot, these moments deserve more than a single heated conversation or a rushed gut check.

We believe that time and data can be powerful allies in decision-making. By tracking sentiment over days or weeks, patterns emerge that would otherwise be invisible. A fleeting moment of doubt becomes less alarming when you see it's an outlier. A persistent trend toward "yes" becomes harder to ignore.

Our Mission

To give people the tools to make decisions with clarity, confidence, and compassion—for themselves and the people they share decisions with.

Real-World Use Cases

Dooey has been used successfully for a wide range of decisions:

Personal & Relationships

  • Should we move to a new city?
  • Do we want to have children?
  • Should we adopt a pet?
  • Is it time to buy a house?

Career & Professional

  • Should I accept this job offer?
  • Is it time to quit my current role?
  • Should I start a business?
  • Do I pursue further education?

Business & Startups

  • Should we pivot our product?
  • Is this the right hire?
  • Should we pursue this partnership?
  • Do we enter a new market?

Teams & Organizations

  • Should we adopt this new process?
  • Is the team ready for remote work?
  • Do we invest in this initiative?
  • Should we change our strategy?

What Makes Dooey Different

Unlike traditional polls, surveys, or decision matrices, Dooey is built specifically for tracking sentiment over time. Here's how we're different:

Dooey

  • ✓ Tracks sentiment over time (days/weeks)
  • ✓ Private responses until reveal
  • ✓ Visualizes trends and convergence
  • ✓ Accounts for emotional volatility
  • ✓ Designed for important, complex decisions

Traditional Tools

  • ✗ Single point-in-time snapshots
  • ✗ Public responses (social pressure)
  • ✗ Static results, no trend analysis
  • ✗ Captures mood, not true preference
  • ✗ Built for quick polls, not deep decisions

In short: Dooey is a decision microscope, not a decision button. It helps you see the details that matter.

Ready to make better decisions?

Join thousands of individuals, couples, and teams who trust Dooey to decode their most important choices.

Start a Dooey Browse Templates

Have questions about the methodology? Contact us or visit our template library for examples.