Forced Ranking
Each person ranks a list of items from 1 to n against clear criteria, with no ties allowed. The individual rankings are combined into one ordered list, which the group then discusses. Because nothing can share a place, people have to make the trade-offs they would otherwise avoid.
Use when the group needs a clear priority order, for example for investments, features or projects, and everything looks important.
Solves: Every item on the list is marked 'high priority', so nothing actually gets prioritised.
- 1
Step 1: Prepare an unranked list of about ten items and agree the ranking criteria (10 min).
- 2
Step 2: Each person ranks every item from 1 (most important) to the last, with no ties (10 min).
- 3
Step 3: Tally the rankings into one combined order (5 min).
- 4
Step 4: Discuss the result, especially items where rankings differ widely (10-20 min).
- 5
Step 5: Agree the final order and next steps (5-10 min).
- Clear criteria are the whole game. Without them, people rank by gut feel.
- Keep the list to around ten items. Longer lists exhaust people.
- For several criteria, rank separately per criterion and compare.
- Rank on two criteria, such as value and effort, and plot the results on a 2x2.