Guide
Ranked-choice voting for teams
A simple poll asks which option you like best. A ranked ballot asks what order you would accept. That difference is why ranked voting resolves group disagreement that a poll only exposes.
- Best for prioritizing a backlog, shortlist, or set of trade-offs
- Works well with 4–15 options and 5 or more participants
- Poor fit for binary yes/no questions or regulated elections
1. Write one honest question
Name the decision and the constraint: “Which three initiatives should we staff in Q3?” beats “What should we work on?” People rank more consistently when they know what the ranking will be used for and who owns the final call.
2. Offer options people can distinguish
Merge near-duplicates before you publish. Two options that mean roughly the same thing split preference between them and both land lower than either deserves.
3. Let people rank privately
Collect ballots before any group discussion. Once someone hears a senior colleague's preference, their ranking drifts toward it — the input stops being independent and the result stops being informative.
4. Read the result as a signal
Ravo scores an option by position: ranked r out of n options on a ballot earns n − r + 1 points, unranked options earn nothing, and ties break on first-choice count. A ranking tells you the group's relative order among the options offered. It does not tell you the options were the right ones, and it is not a vote of authority.
5. Close the loop
Share the aggregate order with everyone who voted and say what you decided, including where you overrode the ranking and why. Groups keep participating when they can see their input landed somewhere.