The rules, in plain language.

Last updated 10 October 2026

By using winnowcards.com you're agreeing to what follows. It's short, so it's worth the two minutes.

1. Who you're dealing with

Winnow is operated by Winnow Cards, a sole proprietorship based in California, United States. In these terms, "we" and "us" mean Winnow Cards, and "you" means whoever is using the site. You can reach us at zoe@helmcrest.co.

2. What Winnow is

Winnow is a self-reflection exercise. You sort a hundred value cards into piles, cut the pile down, rank what's left, and read a short interpretation of the pattern. It takes about eight minutes and it's free.

It's built on the Personal Values Card Sort, an instrument used in counselling and motivational interviewing since 2001. The interpretation Winnow shows you is written by us, derived from how you sorted the cards. It's a prompt for thinking, offered in the spirit of a good question rather than an answer.

It is offered for interest and personal reflection. It has no diagnostic, predictive or evaluative value. It is not a professional service of any kind, and nothing it tells you should be relied upon as the basis for a decision that matters, about your health, your career, your relationships, your money or anyone else's.

3. What Winnow is not

No reliance

Because Winnow has no diagnostic, predictive or evaluative value, you agree that you will not rely on it, or on anything it tells you, as the basis for any decision with real consequences. That includes decisions about your health or treatment, your job or your business, your money, your relationships, or any decision affecting another person.

Your five values are the product of eight minutes of forced choices on a particular afternoon. Treat them as something to think about and argue with, not as a finding. If a result surprises you enough to act on, the right next step is a conversation with someone who knows you, not a website that doesn't.

To the extent the law allows, we accept no responsibility for any decision you or anyone else makes on the basis of a Winnow result, however it was obtained or shared.

4. Do not use this for employment decisions

This one matters enough to have its own section. You must not use Winnow, or anyone's results from it, as a factor in:

• hiring, rejecting or shortlisting a candidate
• firing, disciplining, demoting or promoting an employee
• evaluating performance, deciding pay, or assigning people to roles
• screening tenants, applicants, members or clients
• any other decision that materially affects someone's livelihood, housing, education, insurance or legal standing

Winnow was not designed for selection and has not been validated for it. Using an unvalidated instrument this way is unfair to the person being judged, and depending on where you are it may be unlawful. If you do it anyway, you take on that responsibility entirely, and the indemnity in section 13 applies.

Using it in a team workshop where everyone chooses to take part, discusses their own results, and faces no consequence for what they say, is exactly what the team kit is for. The line is consent and consequence.

5. You need to be 18

This site is for adults. Some cards deal with sexuality, wealth, power and faith, and the exercise asks you to make genuine trade-offs about your life. By using Winnow you confirm you're at least 18 years old.

A therapist, counsellor or teacher who works with young people may use the printed materials with a client under 18 where their own professional judgement, training and safeguarding obligations say it's appropriate. That decision is theirs, and so is responsibility for it. The website itself remains for adults.

6. Your results belong to you

Whatever you produce here is yours. Share it, post it, print it, put it on your fridge, take it to your next session. We claim no ownership of your results and no right to use them. As the privacy policy explains, in almost every case we never see them at all.

7. Coaches, therapists and teams

You're welcome here, and you don't need to pay or ask. Send the link to as many clients as you like. Use it before a first session, between sessions, or in the room. Print your results and mark them up. No account, no licence, no client limit.

Two things we'd ask you not to do:

• Don't repackage it as your own. Copying the deck wording, the interpretations or the design into your own product, worksheet or app, whether paid or free, isn't on. Point people at the link instead.
• Don't imply we endorse you. Saying you use Winnow with clients is accurate and welcome. Saying you're certified, accredited, partnered or affiliated with Winnow is not, because no such programme exists.

8. The instrument, and what belongs to whom

The underlying instrument is the Personal Values Card Sort by W.R. Miller, J. C'de Baca, D.B. Matthews and P.L. Wilbourne, University of New Mexico, 2001. Its authors placed it in the public domain, which is why it can be offered here for free. We're grateful for that, and we credit them on every page that uses their work. They have no connection to Winnow and have not endorsed it.

Winnow keeps all 83 of their original values, shortens the definitions so they read on a phone, and adds seventeen more drawn from later values research.

What is ours, and protected by copyright: the shortened card definitions, the seventeen added cards, the theme groupings, the written interpretations and questions, the share card design, the site copy, the visual design, the Winnow name and mark, and the code. You may use all of it for your own reflection and with your own clients. You may not copy it into a competing product, resell it, or strip the attribution.

9. Accounts

Today there are no accounts on Winnow, and the free sort will never need one. If we add accounts later, for saving a history of your sorts or managing a practitioner's client list, the rules below apply from the moment you create one.

• Give us accurate information, and keep your email address current so we can reach you.
• Your login is yours alone. Don't share it, don't let someone else use it, and don't use anyone else's.
• Keep your password to yourself. You're responsible for what happens under your account, so tell us promptly if you think someone else has got in.
• One person, one account, unless we've agreed otherwise in writing for a team or practice.
• You can delete your account whenever you like, and we'll delete the data in it. We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, and we'll tell you why.

10. Buying things from us

Most of Winnow is free. Where something is paid, these terms apply. At the moment the only paid product is the team kit, and the card decks are not for sale yet.

The team kit

A $99 digital product: a facilitator script, slides and an aggregate template for running a values session with a group.

• How it works today. You request it through the form on the site. We reply with payment details and then email you the files. Nothing is charged automatically and no card details are stored on this site.
• Delivery. Within 48 hours of payment clearing, by email.
• What you may do with it. Use it with your own teams and your own clients, as often as you like, including paid facilitation work. You may not resell the kit itself, publish the files, or share them outside your organisation.

Prices, payment and tax

• Prices are in US dollars. The price shown when you order is the price you pay, even if it changes afterwards.
• Prices may change at any time for future orders. We'll never change the price of something you've already bought.
• Where sales tax, VAT or GST applies, it's added at checkout or stated on the invoice.
• If we take payment by card, a third-party payment processor handles it. We never see or store your full card number.
• An obvious pricing error, such as a decimal point in the wrong place, doesn't oblige us to sell at that price. We'll tell you and refund you rather than quietly charge the right amount.

Refunds

• Digital products. If it isn't useful, tell us within 14 days and we'll refund you in full. You don't need to justify it and you can keep the files.
• Physical products, when we sell them: tell us within 30 days of delivery and we'll refund the item once it's back with us in resaleable condition. If it arrives damaged or wrong, we'll replace it or refund you and cover the return postage. Photos help and we won't make you post anything back that's broken.
• If you're a consumer in the UK or EU, you have cancellation rights under your own law that these terms don't shorten. For digital files delivered immediately, that right ends once you've downloaded them, and our 14-day promise above is what applies instead.
• Refunds go back to the payment method you used, usually within five working days of us approving them.

Shipping, when there's something to ship

For physical decks, we'll show delivery times and costs before you pay. Risk of loss passes to you on delivery. Import duties on international orders are yours to pay, and we'll say so at checkout rather than surprise you later.

Subscriptions, if we ever offer one

We don't sell a subscription today. If we do, it'll work like this, and we'll say so clearly at the point of purchase rather than bury it here:

• We'll tell you the price, the billing period and the renewal date before you pay.
• It renews automatically until you cancel, charged to the method on file at the then-current price.
• You can cancel any time from your account, or by emailing us, and cancelling always takes at most as many steps as signing up did. Cancelling stops the next charge and you keep access to the end of the period you've paid for.
• We'll email you before any price increase, and before renewal where the law requires it, in time for you to cancel first.
• A free trial converts to a paid subscription at the end of the trial unless you cancel. We'll remind you before that happens and tell you the date when you sign up.
• Part-used periods aren't refunded unless the law says otherwise, or unless we've clearly failed to deliver, in which case ask and we'll sort it out.

11. Anything you post

There's nothing to post on Winnow today. No comments, no reviews, no profiles, no messaging. If we add any of that, the rules below apply to whatever you submit.

• It stays yours. You keep ownership of anything you post. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, display and distribute it for the purpose of running the site, and to quote it in marketing where you've given us permission for that specifically.
• It has to be yours to post. Don't submit anything you don't have the rights to, and don't post someone else's private information, including their values results.
• Keep it civil and lawful. Nothing abusive, hateful, harassing, defamatory, sexually explicit, or encouraging self-harm or violence. No spam, no advertising, no impersonation.
• No medical or crisis advice to strangers. Given what this tool touches, don't use it to counsel other users. Point people to real professionals instead.
• We can remove things. We may take down anything that breaks these rules, or that we reasonably think will harm someone, and we may stop you posting again. We don't pre-screen submissions and we're not responsible for what other users say.
• Testimonials. If you give us a quote or review to publish, we'll attribute it the way you asked and remove it if you later change your mind.

12. Using the site reasonably

Don't do these things, which is probably obvious:

• Scrape, bulk-download or republish the card deck or the interpretations
• Try to break, overload or probe the site, or get at anything you're not meant to see
• Use it to harass, coerce, profile or expose someone, including by pressuring a person into sharing their results
• Claim the work as yours, or remove the attribution to Miller and colleagues
• Use it for anything illegal

If you do, we may block your access. Since there are no accounts, that's about the only remedy available.

13. Availability, warranties and liability

This is the part written in lawyer's cadence, because that's what gives it effect. It's still short.

14. Third-party links

Where we link somewhere else, we don't control that site and aren't responsible for what's on it.

15. Changes to these terms

If these terms change, the date at the top changes too. For anything significant we'll note it on the site. Carrying on using Winnow after a change means you accept the new version. If you don't, stop using the site, and your results stay on your device either way.

16. Disputes and governing law

Talk to us first

If you have a problem with Winnow, email zoe@helmcrest.co and describe it, what you'd like done about it, and how to reach you. We'll do the same if the problem is at our end.

Both of us agree to try to sort it out that way before starting any formal proceedings, and to allow 30 days from that first email to do it. Most things that look like disputes are misunderstandings or a refund, and both are quicker by email than by lawyer.

Governing law

These terms, and any dispute arising out of them or out of your use of Winnow, whether in contract, tort or otherwise, are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

Where disputes are heard

The state and federal courts located in the State of California have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute between us, and California is the exclusive venue for it. You and we each consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts and waive any objection that they are an inconvenient forum.

That said, either of us may bring an individual claim in a small claims court instead, if the claim qualifies.

Time limit

Any claim arising out of these terms or your use of Winnow must be brought within one year of when it arose, or it is permanently barred, except where the law of your jurisdiction does not permit a shorter period than it sets.

If you're a consumer outside the United States

Consumer protection law in your own country may give you rights these terms can't take away, including the right to bring a claim in your local courts and to rely on your own country's mandatory consumer rules. Nothing in this section removes those rights. Where your local law conflicts with this section, your local law wins on that point only, and the rest of this section still applies.

The rest

If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, that part is severed and the rest still stands. If we don't enforce something straight away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later. These terms are the entire agreement between us about Winnow, and replace anything said before. You may not transfer your rights under these terms to someone else. We may transfer ours if the business is sold, and we'll tell you if that happens.