Ask two options at a time. Learn what people really want.
Quick Pick shows a respondent two options and asks them to pick one. After enough picks it knows their preference ordering, including trade-offs they could not have stated if you had asked directly.
How it works
- Discrete items (activities, professions) are rated with Glicko-2. Each item carries a rating and a rating deviation, so every ranking comes with a confidence interval. Ratings are stored per respondent, so one person's answers never move another's ranking.
- Continuous attributes (income, hours, upside) use a Davidson tie-extended Bradley-Terry model, which includes an explicit "too close to call" outcome.
- Adaptive question selection favours the items the model is least sure about, pairs items with close ratings, balances coverage, avoids recent repeats, and randomises which option appears on top so screen position cannot bias the result.
- Three perspectives (what you want, what you want in a partner, what you think your partner wants) never share state. Comparing the last two across a linked couple shows where each is wrong about the other.
Status
Prototype. It is a Next.js and Postgres app that you run yourself; this page is a description, not a hosted demo, and no hosted instance is promised. No outside user has run a real survey with it yet, and nothing here is a measured result.
Deploy your own copy
Deploy with Vercel to run your own copy in your own account, with your own database. Nothing passes through the author, and you become the operator of your copy.
Run it yourself
git clone https://github.com/Duncan-Haywood/oss-monorepo cd oss-monorepo/ventures/quick-pick-survey npm install npx prisma migrate deploy npx prisma db seed npm run dev
It needs a Postgres database and two environment variables (ADMIN_KEY, ADMIN_SESSION_SECRET). The README in that folder has the full steps and the design documents (architecture, data collection, accessibility).
Privacy and usage
This page has no scripts, cookies or analytics, and records nothing about you. When you self-host the app, what it stores about a respondent is documented in docs/DATA-COLLECTION.md.
Disclaimer
A ranking inferred from a small number of picks is a statistical estimate with uncertainty, not a fact about a person. Do not use it as the sole basis for a hiring, financial, medical or relationship decision.
No warranty. This software is provided free and as-is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. You are responsible for reviewing and verifying its output before relying on it. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the authors accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from its use.