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A Ranking slide lets your audience prioritise a list of options, not just pick their favourite. Instead of asking “What do you like?”, you’re asking “What matters most?” — and results update instantly as responses come in.

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Setting Up a Ranking Slide

1

Open your presentation

Open your presentation in the AhaSlides editor.
2

Add a Ranking slide

Click New Slide and choose Ranking.
3

Enter your question

Type your question in the Your question field.
4

Add items to rank

Add the items you want participants to rank — up to 10 items.
5

Add images (optional)

Click the image icon next to the question or any item to add an image.

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Video Tutorial

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Ranking Settings

The number of items each participant can pick, from 2 to 10.
Apply a time limit between 5 seconds and 20 minutes (1200 seconds).
Stop accepting responses at any point during presenting — useful if you need to clarify a question before your audience submits their answers, or for any other reason you don’t want participants submitting right now.
Hide submitted responses from the presenter’s screen as they come in. While presenting, a button appears in the middle of the slide to reveal the responses whenever you’re ready.

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How Scoring Works

Ranking slides use a weighted scoring system (Borda count): higher-ranked items get more points, lower-ranked items get fewer points, and all points are combined to determine the final order. The top result may not have the most votes — it reflects the highest overall priority. For example, in a list of 10 items, a participant’s #1 choice gets 10 points, #2 gets 9 points, #3 gets 8 points, and so on down to their last choice getting 1 point. Points from every participant are added together, and the item with the highest total score wins.

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On the Participant’s Side

1

Join the presentation

Join via link or QR code.
2

Select items to rank

Tap the items to select them. Tap an item again, or drag it back to the list, to unselect it.
3

Reorder items

Drag items into their preferred order.
4

Submit

Submit the response. Once submitted, responses can’t be changed.

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Common Use Cases

Workshops and Strategy Sessions

Prioritise initiatives, ideas, or projects, and help teams align on what to focus on first.

Training and Education

Encourage learners to evaluate trade-offs by ranking competing factors or solutions.

Product and Feature Prioritisation

Identify which features or improvements should be built first based on team or customer input.

Retrospectives and Team Meetings

Rank challenges or improvement areas to decide what to address in the next sprint.

Employee Engagement and HR Planning

Understand which programmes, benefits, or development areas employees value most.

Customer Research and Surveys

Capture deeper insights by asking respondents to prioritise needs, preferences, or features.

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Tips for Better Results

  • Be clear and specific — make sure participants understand exactly what they’re ranking and based on what criteria.
  • Allow enough time — around 60 seconds for in-person sessions, 90 seconds for virtual sessions.
  • Use ranking for prioritisation — choose Ranking when you need order and trade-offs, not just general opinions.
  • Narrow down first if needed — if you have a long list, use a poll to shortlist options before asking participants to rank them.
  • Focus on top results — the top and bottom items are usually the most reliable; middle rankings may vary more.