BACKGROUND: Consumer preferences are important to inform the efficient and responsive delivery of health care services; particularly for the chronically ill. Chronic Heart Failure Management Programs (CHF-MPs) are effective at reducing morbidity and mortality and are arbitrarily applied in different ways and settings.  We know very little of consumer preferences surrounding the choice between CHF-MPs applied via the patient’s home or a specialist hospital clinic. The Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) offers a method to systematically quantify the relative importance of different characteristics of a CHF-MP, from the patient’s perspective. OBJECTIVES: To describe the development of a DCE to quantify consumer preferences related to CHF-MPs. METHODS: A series of 12 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with patients enrolled in a clinical trial comparing home and clinic based CHF-MPs (the WHICH? Study). Interviews explored the characteristics of a CHF-MP which were important to patients. These characteristics were then used as a basis for the design of the DCE instrument. A fractional factorial blocked design capable of estimating all main and one two-way interaction effect was utilised. RESULTS: Key themes identified by interview participants included delivery, communication, education, and nurturing. A CHF-MP DCE instrument was developed describing CHF-MPs in terms of characteristics including whether the same nurse is seen at each visit, the cost (including travel costs) of seeing the nurse, and access to telephone or exercise/education support services. The DCE will now be pilot-tested before being used to elicit the preferences of approximately 300 patients enrolled in the WHICH? Study. CONCLUSIONS: Interviews with CHF patients suggest consumers value aspects of a management program beyond those directly related to health outcomes. The DCE designed from this process will be capable of quantifying preferences and estimating willingness-to-pay for the process-based characteristics of a CHF-MP.