How to Use the Ranking Slide in AhaSlides

How to Use the Ranking Slide in AhaSlides

A Ranking slide lets your audience prioritize a list of options, not just pick their favorite. Instead of asking “What do you like?”, you’re asking: “What matters most?”
Participants simply:
  • Tap to choose items
  • Drag to reorder them
  • Hit submit
Results update instantly as responses come in, helping you quickly identify group priorities.

How to set up the Ranking slide

Create and set up the slide

  1. Open your presentation in AhaSlides.
  2. Click New Slide → choose Ranking.
  3. Enter your question in the Your question field
  4. Add items for participants to rank (up to 10).
  5. (Optional) Add images to your question or items by clicking the image icon next to them.

Watch the tutorial video


Idea
Tips for better results
  • Be clear and specific: Make sure participants understand exactly what they are ranking and based on what criteria
  • Allow enough time
    • ~60 seconds for in-person sessions
    • ~90 seconds for virtual sessions
  • Use ranking for prioritization: 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

Change the settings

Change the settings of your Ranking slide to your liking. There are 4 settings that you can change:
  1. Pick per participant: The number of items that your participants can pick. This can range from 2 to 10.
  2. Time limit: Apply a time limit to the slide. When enabled, you can choose your time limit between 5 seconds and 20 minutes (1200 seconds).
  3. Close submission:  Close submissions for specific slides can be useful if you need to clarify a question before your audience submits their answers, or for any other reason where you do not want the participants to submit their answers to a question at that moment.
  4. Hide results: This hides the submitted responses from the presenter's screen as they're submitted. While presenting and receiving submissions, there will be a button in the middle of the slide to reveal the responses whenever you want.

How the ranking works

Ranking slide uses a weighted scoring system (Borda count):
  • Higher-ranked items get more points
  • Lower-ranked items get fewer points
All points are combined to determine the final order. The top result may not have the most votes, but it reflects the highest overall priority.

For example: In a list of 10 items, your #1 choice gets 10 points, #2 gets 9 points, #3 gets 8 points, and so on down to your last choice getting 1 point. We add up all the points from every participant, and the item with the highest total score wins.

On the participant's side


  1. Join the presentation via link or QR code
  2. Select the items they want to rank. Tap an item again or drag it back to the list to unselect it
  3. Drag items into their preferred order
  4. Submit their response
Once submitted, responses cannot be changed.

Common use cases

Ranking slides are useful anytime you need a group to agree on what matters most. Here are some common ways to use them:
  1. Workshops and strategy sessions
     Prioritize initiatives, ideas, or projects. Ranking helps teams align on what to focus on first.
  2. Training and education
     Encourage learners to evaluate trade-offs by ranking competing factors or solutions.
  3. Product and feature prioritization
     Identify which features or improvements should be built first based on team or customer input.
  4. Retrospectives and team meetings
     Rank challenges or improvement areas to decide what to address in the next sprint.
  5. Employee engagement and HR planning
     Understand which programs, benefits, or development areas employees value most.
  6. Customer research and surveys
     Capture deeper insights by asking respondents to prioritize needs, preferences, or features.

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