What is your preferred technique for catching crappie?
live bait?
plastic jig?
marabou jig?
dead stick?
slow retrieve?
slow up and down motion?
If in a boat, do you sit in one place or slowly drift?

It all depends for me.

I hardly ever use live bait
Plastic jigs work
Marabou jigs work as well
I let the fish tell me how much action to put on the jig
If I am in a boat, I fish in the cover for 5 minutes and if no bites, I move to a new spot and repeat till I catch fish.

What is your preferred technique for catching crappie? Vertical Jigging would be my pref

live bait? Rarely would I used minnows (only if I'm super super super desperate)

plastic jig? 95% I use plastics, Depending on depth and wind, I usually use 1/16th, if windy and deep then 1/8th, if I want a slower fall i use 1/24th

marabou jig? rarely use these

dead stick? Depends on the crappies, usually winter time is when I will dead stick for the most part if i am vertical jigging.

slow retrieve? Slow retrieve if i has fishing horizontally in the creeks or brush on lake side

slow up and down motion? Depends on how the crappies bite, some times they want it falling vs rising, fast vs slow, trial and error during those times lol

If in a boat, do you sit in one place or slowly drift? Fishing on top of brush using bouy markers.

CATCHING!

I'm 100% plastics. Shad bodies most of the time. 1/16 most off the time at 10'or less. Fishing docks or boat slips I mostly pitch the jig out and let it pendulum straight down for about 20 seconds then raise up 1"-2"and back down fish will determine the speed. Around timber,I let the jig go to the bottom and raise the jig by grabbing the line and raising by hand. In a boat I mainly sit in one place on bridge pylons or brush piles.

Ditto on what "The King, the aholic & the Mac" said except, FEATHER JIGS EXCLUSIVELY! I've utilized every technique mentioned and probably more at one time or another and ALL have caught fish. As stated by OFBHWG, the objective is....CATCHING!!!

LOTS of different answers to that, but...

If I had to pick ONE style of fishing, I would use a 1/8oz hand-tied feather jig, dead sticking, fishing in one spot as long as there was a bite...moving when there's not.
Again, that would be what I would do if I HAD to pick one. Truth is, ever time I go out it's a little bit different.
I like to say, "Crappie are like women, you have to give them what they want if you expect them to bite."