Example polls
Paste any of these into the message box in Slack.
Scale from 1 to 5. One key result, one anonymous 1 to 5 rating. Works on Free.
/poll "How confident are you that we hit KR1 (reach 2,000 weekly active teams) this quarter?" "Will miss" "Unlikely" "Coin flip" "Likely" "Will hit" scale anonymous
Free
Anonymous
Survey (4 questions). The full weekly check-in as one anonymous survey, closing after a day.
/poll "Weekly OKR confidence" "Anonymous. Rate each key result, 1 is will miss, 5 is will hit." anonymous close after 1 day --- "KR1. Reach 2,000 weekly active teams" scale --- "KR2. Cut onboarding drop-off to 30 percent" scale --- "KR3. Ship the public API" scale --- "What is the biggest risk to our OKRs right now?" short text optional
Premium: surveys (several questions), closing automatically
AnonymousClose automatically: after 1 day
Choice poll. A follow-up when one key result keeps scoring low.
/poll "What would most raise your confidence in KR2?" "More people on it" "Clearer scope" "Fewer competing priorities" "Nothing, we are on track" limit 1 anonymous
Premium: vote limits
AnonymousLimit votes: 1 per person
How to word it
Ask about the outcome, not the effort: "How confident are you that we hit KR2 this quarter?" Write the key result's actual target in the question or its label, so nobody has to look it up.
Label the scale ends in plain language. "Will miss" to "Will hit" with "Coin flip" in the middle is clearer than numbers alone, and a scale poll takes exactly five labels, worst to best.
Keep it anonymous
Confidence checks only work if people can say "this is not going to happen" without it reading as giving up. Make the poll anonymous. If the team lead's score is the only 4 in a sea of 2s, that is the finding.
When to send it
Same day and time each week, for example Monday morning before the planning meeting, so the number is fresh when you discuss it. Set it up as a recurring poll in Slack (Premium) rather than re-posting by hand. Close it after a day (close after 1 day, Premium) so each week's result is a clean snapshot.
What to do with the results
Track the median per key result in a simple table, week by week. Look for three things: a drop of a full point, a wide spread between people (some say 5, some say 1, so the team disagrees on what done means), and anything sitting at 2 or below for two weeks running. Each of those gets a five-minute discussion, not a slide.
Export the results each week if you want history beyond Slack (Premium, CSV).
Questions
What does a scale poll show?
Each person rates from 1 to 5, and the results include the mean and median. Use the median for tracking; one very low or high vote moves it less.
Can I repeat the confidence check every week automatically?
Yes, on Premium. Set up a recurring poll in Slack from the Simple Poll modal. Recurrence can't be written into the /poll text.
How many key results can one survey cover?
A survey can hold up to 20 questions. For a confidence check, one scale question per key result and one open question is plenty.
Used by
Related
- How to create a rating scale poll in Slack
A scale poll asks people to rate something from 1 to 5: how clear the plan is, how the sprint went, how confident they are in a date. The poll shows how the votes spread across the five points, and its results view adds the average and median, which a yes or no poll can't give you. Scale polls work on every plan.
- 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.
- What is a Likert scale?
A Likert scale measures attitudes by asking people how much they agree with a set of statements, usually on five points from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". Strictly, one statement is a Likert item, and the scale is several items scored together.
- Weekly pulse survey for Slack
When an annual engagement survey is too slow to catch problems and you want a light, regular read on how the team is doing.
- 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.