Example polls
Paste any of these into the message box in Slack.
Choice poll. A classic this-or-that. Three seconds to answer.
/poll "Coffee, tea, or neither?" "Coffee" :coffee: "Tea" :tea: "Neither" :droplet:
Free
Choice poll. One pick each, so the result is a real split.
/poll "Early bird or night owl?" "Early bird" :sunrise: "Night owl" :owl: "Depends on the deadline" :clock3: limit 1
Premium: vote limits
Limit votes: 1 per person
Short text with voting. An open question. People react with a heart to their favourite answers.
/poll "What is the best thing you ate this week?" short text :heart:
Free
Choice poll. A starter list, and people can add their own skill.
/poll "Which skill would you learn instantly if you could?" "A new language" "An instrument" "Cooking like a chef" "Woodworking" allow-options
Free
Allow options
What makes one work
Low stakes, no wrong answer, and nothing that sorts people by money, religion, politics or drinking. "Coffee or tea?" is a good icebreaker. "Where did you go on holiday?" makes the people who didn't go anywhere sit it out.
Keep the options short and add an emoji to each: "Coffee" :coffee:. Emoji make a poll quick to scan and it looks like a game, not a survey.
Question ideas
- Coffee, tea, or neither?
- Early bird or night owl?
- Best snack for a long meeting?
- Which decade has the best music?
- What was your first job?
- What is a small thing that made your week better?
- What are you reading, watching or listening to right now?
- Which skill would you learn instantly if you could?
- Desk setup: tidy or chaos?
- What is the most useful thing you learned this month?
Open questions with votes
For open questions, use a short text poll with a reaction, like short text :heart:. Everyone writes an answer, and people can react to the answers they like. Add order-results-by-votes and the best ones rise to the top. It works well for "What is the best thing you ate this week?" or "Recommend one podcast".
Make it a ritual
Same day, same time each week, for example Friday after lunch. Set it up as a recurring poll in Slack (Premium) and swap in a new question each time, or rotate who picks the question. The person who picks it answers first in the thread; that gets the conversation going.
Questions
How often should I post icebreaker polls?
Once a week is a good default. Daily works in social channels; in work channels it starts to feel like noise.
Can people suggest their own answers?
Yes. Add allow-options and voters can add options to the poll.
Should icebreakers be anonymous?
Usually not. The point is getting to know each other, so names on the votes help. Use anonymous only if the question touches something people may feel shy about.
Used by
Related
- 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.
- Book club pick poll for Slack
When your book club needs to choose its next read and wants everyone to have a say, not just the person who always suggests first.
- How to make an emoji poll in Slack
"Emoji poll" means two things in Slack. One is a message where people vote by reacting with an emoji, which needs no app. The other is a proper poll where each option carries an emoji, which reads faster and still counts votes properly. This page covers both, plus the poll emoji themselves.
- 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.
- 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.