Andrew Anthony, Research Manager –

MaxDiff, or best-worst scaling, is a method of discerning a ranked order of preference or importance for a set of items. Instead of asking respondents to rate each item individually, they are asked to select the best and worst item among a subset of the total list. Each respondent repeats this task a number of times (determined by how many total items you have), and these series of choices allow a full ranking to be assembled.

At Deft, this often means assessing the appeal or importance of supplemental benefits for Medicare Advantage plans. It can also be used for prioritizing messaging or understanding customers’ priorities. But MaxDiff can be used to rank the appeal or importance of anything.

To demonstrate how simple MaxDiff can be, we’ve created an example survey to find the best type of French fry. On each screen of the survey, you will be asked to identify the style you like the best and the style you like the least out of a set of four styles. You will also be asked if you like all, some, or none of the types in that set. Later, we’ll be able to show how the fries stack up against each other, and which, if any, are not liked at all.

Which fry is the best? Help us find out by taking the survey here