Example polls
Paste any of these into the message box in Slack.
Choice poll. No options, so everyone adds their own pick.
/poll "Book club nominations. What should we read next? Add title and author."
Free
Allow options
Ranked poll. The shortlist, ranked, closing after three days.
/poll "Which book should we read next?" "The Overstory, Richard Powers" "Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir" "Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman" "Piranesi, Susanna Clarke" ranked close after 3 days
Premium: closing automatically
Close automatically: after 3 days
Choice poll. The pace check. Anonymous, so the honest answers come in.
/poll "Halfway check. How far are you?" "Not started" "Under a third" "About half" "Nearly done" "Finished" limit 1 anonymous
Premium: vote limits
AnonymousLimit votes: 1 per person
Scale from 1 to 5. A 1 to 5 rating after the meeting.
/poll "How did you rate this book?" "Did not like it" "Not for me" "It was fine" "Liked it" "Loved it" scale
Free
Collect nominations
Post a question with no options. Everyone adds their own pick, and people can vote on others' picks while the poll is open, so you see early favourites. Ask people to add the author too: "The Overstory, Richard Powers".
Give a rule or two so the shortlist is readable: a page limit, a theme, or "available as an audiobook".
Vote with a ranked poll
Take the top four or five nominations into a ranked poll. Ranking is the right shape for book picks: people often love one book and are fine with two others, and instant-runoff picks the book with the broadest support rather than the one with three passionate fans.
Close it after a few days (close after 3 days, Premium). Voters in a ranked poll see results only once it closes, so nobody switches to the front-runner.
Check the pace
Halfway to the meeting, ask where people are. If most of the club is behind, move the meeting a week rather than meeting with three people who finished. Make it anonymous; nobody wants to admit to page 12 by name.
After the meeting
A quick rating of the book, plus one open question for the next theme, gives you material for the next round of nominations.
Questions
How does the ranked vote pick a winner?
With instant-runoff voting. If no book has a majority of first choices, the one with the fewest is eliminated and those votes go to each voter's next choice, round by round, until one book has a majority.
Can people add books after the poll is posted?
Yes. A poll with no options lets everyone add their own, and allow-options does the same for a poll that starts with a list.
How many books can go in the final vote?
Up to 5 on Free and up to 45 on Premium. Four or five is a good shortlist.
Used by
Related
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When a project, team, channel or internal tool needs a name and you want ideas from more people than the ones in the room.
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When a channel is all work and no chatter, a new team is forming, or remote teammates need an easy way to get to know each other.
- How to create a ranked choice poll in Slack
In a ranked choice poll, each person puts the options in order of preference instead of picking one. Simple Poll counts the result with instant-runoff voting, so the winner is the option with the broadest support, not just the most first choices. Ranked polls work on every plan.
- How to let people add options to a Slack poll
Sometimes you don't know all the options yet: the best venue, a name for the new team, the topic everyone actually wants. Turn on adding options and voters get an Add option button. Anything they add becomes an option everyone can vote on. It's free on every plan.
- Polls for Slack communities
A Slack community is not a company. Nobody has to answer you, half the members are lurkers, and a careless @channel reaches thousands of people who did not ask for it. Polls work well here because they are the lowest-effort way for a quiet member to take part: one click, no message to write.