Example polls
Paste any of these into the message box in Slack.
Choice poll. The one-tap version. People pick one status, and you follow up with whoever is blocked.
/poll "Status today?" "On track" "At risk" "Blocked" limit 1
Premium: vote limits
Limit votes: 1 per person
Survey (3 questions). The full async standup as a survey that closes before the next one posts.
/poll "Daily standup" "Answer when you start your day." close after 12 hours --- "What did you finish yesterday?" short text --- "What are you working on today?" short text --- "Anything blocking you?" short text optional
Premium: surveys (several questions), closing automatically
Close automatically: after 12 hours
Short text with voting. Blockers only. Teammates upvote the ones that block them too.
/poll "What is blocking you today?" short text :thumbsup:
Free
How to word it
Stick to the three standup questions, as free text:
- What did you finish yesterday?
- What are you working on today?
- Anything blocking you? Make this one optional, or people type "no" every day.
Name people's answers, don't hide them. A standup is coordination, not feedback, so it
should not be anonymous: the point is knowing who is stuck.
If three free-text answers a day is too much for your team, use a single status question instead: on track, at risk, or blocked. Ask for detail only from the people who are not on track.
When to send it
Post it at the start of the earliest time zone's day and close after 12 hours (Premium)
so yesterday's answers don't mix with today's. Post it in the team's own channel, not a
broad one.
Set it up once as a recurring poll (Premium) from the Simple Poll modal in Slack, and pick weekdays only. Retyping it every morning is how async standups die.
What to do with the results
Read the blockers first, every morning, and reply in the poll's thread with who will help. That reply is the whole value of the standup. Scan the rest for overlap: two people working on the same thing, or one thing nobody is working on.
Once a week, look at who answered. A teammate who stops answering usually has a reason worth asking about directly.
The mistake people make
Asking too much. A standup with six questions gets answered for a week, then ignored. If you need something extra for one day, post a separate poll that day.
Questions
Can the standup post itself every morning?
Yes, on Premium. Create it from the Simple Poll modal (type /poll with no text) and use
the Schedule button to repeat it. Recurring schedules are set in Slack, not in the /poll
text. See how to create a recurring poll.
Is there a ready-made standup template?
Not in the Template gallery. Copy one of the examples on this page instead: they are ready
to paste after /poll.
Should a standup poll be anonymous?
No. The point of a standup is knowing who needs help. Keep anonymity for feelings and feedback, like a team mood check-in.
What needs Premium here?
limit 1, close after, multi-question surveys and recurring polls are Premium. A single
free-text blockers question works on Free. Try Premium free for 14 days with
/simplepoll trial.
Used by
Related
- How to create a recurring poll in Slack
A recurring poll posts itself on a schedule you set, such as every Monday at 10am. You write it once and Simple Poll reposts it, so your weekly pulse or standup check-in never depends on someone remembering. Recurring polls are a Premium feature.
- Team mood check-in poll for Slack
When you want an early, honest signal on how the team is feeling, before it shows up as missed deadlines or resignations.
- Workload check poll for Slack
Before planning the next sprint or quarter, during a crunch, or any time you suspect some of the team is carrying more than they say.
- Slack polls for remote teams
On a remote team, Slack is the office, and a lot of what an office does for free has to be asked for on purpose: who is around when, how people are doing, where to meet up once a year. Polls are how you ask without scheduling another call.
- Slack polls for engineering teams
Engineers will answer a poll if it takes ten seconds and replaces a meeting. They will ignore one that reads like an HR form. The polls that stick in engineering channels are short, tied to the sprint, and end in a decision someone acts on.