How do researchers determine which product features matter most to consumers? How can organizations prioritize policy issues, brand attributes, or user experience improvements when everything seems important?

One powerful approach is Maximum Difference Scaling (MaxDiff)—a survey method designed to reveal the relative importance of items by asking respondents to repeatedly choose the most and least important options from a set.

Unlike simple rating questions, MaxDiff forces meaningful trade-offs, producing clearer insights into what people truly value. This method is widely used across market research, public opinion studies, and product development to prioritize features, messages, and policy priorities.

Join NYAAPOR for a Survey Methods “Lunch and Learn” session led by Tracey Di Lascio-Martinuk, who will introduce the fundamentals of MaxDiff, explain when and why researchers use it, and walk through practical examples of how the method helps uncover preference hierarchies.

Attendees will leave with a better understanding of how MaxDiff works, when it is most useful, and how it compares to other survey approaches for measuring priorities and preferences.

Registration coming soon.