Example polls
Paste any of these into the message box in Slack.
Choice poll. The one-tap version. Post it in the channel straight after the meeting.
/poll "Was this meeting a good use of your time?" "Yes" :white_check_mark: "Partly" :neutral_face: "No" :x: anonymous limit 1
Premium: vote limits
AnonymousLimit votes: 1 per person
Choice poll. Pick the changes you would make. People can choose more than one.
/poll "How should we change the weekly sync?" "Keep as is" "Make it shorter" "Make it every two weeks" "Replace with a written update" "Fewer people" anonymous close after 1 day
Premium: closing automatically
AnonymousClose automatically: after 1 day
Survey (3 questions). The full version as a short survey that closes after a day.
/poll "Weekly sync feedback" "Anonymous. One minute." anonymous close after 1 day --- "How useful was this meeting?" "Waste of time" "Not very" "Somewhat" "Useful" "Essential" scale --- "What should we change?" "Keep as is" "Shorter" "Less often" "Async instead" "Fewer people" --- "Anything else?" short text optional
Premium: surveys (several questions), closing automatically
AnonymousClose automatically: after 1 day
How to word it
Ask about value, not enjoyment. "Was this meeting a good use of your time?" gets a more useful answer than "Did you like the meeting?"
Then ask about the format, with concrete options: shorter, less often, async instead, fewer people, or keep as is. People are better at picking a change than at describing one. Allow them to pick more than one.
Make it anonymous. Nobody wants to be the one who said the team lead's meeting is a
waste of time.
When to send it
Straight after the meeting, with close after 1 day (Premium). For a weekly meeting,
once a month is enough. Also run it after you change the format, to see if the change
helped.
What to do with the results
If most people say it wasn't worth their time, change it the following week and say what you changed. If "async instead" wins, try a written update for two weeks and run the poll again. Cancelling a meeting the team voted against costs nothing and earns a lot of trust.
The mistake people make
Asking and then defending the meeting. If you ask for feedback, accept the answer, or explain clearly why the meeting has to stay as it is.
Questions
Can I post it automatically after every meeting?
You can set it up as a recurring poll (Premium) from the Simple Poll modal, timed to post when the meeting usually ends. See how to create a recurring poll.
Is the feedback anonymous?
With anonymous, nobody sees who voted for what, including you.
What needs Premium?
limit 1, close after, multi-question surveys and recurring polls. A plain anonymous
poll is Free. Try Premium for 14 days with /simplepoll trial.
Used by
Related
- Meeting agenda topics poll for Slack
A day or two before a team meeting, planning session or one-to-one series, so the agenda reflects what people need to discuss rather than what the organiser remembered.
- No-meeting day poll for Slack
When calendars are full of meetings and people say they can't get focused work done, and you want the team to choose and own a meeting-free day.
- Training session feedback poll for Slack
Right after a training, workshop, onboarding session or lunch-and-learn, while attendees still remember what was useful and what dragged.
- How to create an anonymous poll in Slack
An anonymous poll in Simple Poll hides who voted for what from everyone, including the person who created it. The poll still counts every vote and shows the totals. It's free on every plan.
- Slack polls for managers and team leads
A team lead's job is mostly two things: deciding, and finding out what you do not know. Both get easier with a handful of well-timed polls. The point is not to vote on everything. It is to stop spending a meeting on questions a poll answers in an hour, and to hear the things your team would not say to your face.