Which tool do you use for internal communication in your organization?
If you answered Slack, you’re one of an estimated 38.8 million other users who use the platform daily. Talk about a worthy competitor!
Slack has transformed how teams collaborate, offering a dynamic space where channels, instant messaging, and third-party integrations simplify communication. But did you know you can use it for decision-making, too?
How? The answer is Slack polls.
A well-timed Slack poll can simplify decision-making, gather feedback, and actively engage your team members.
Let’s explore how to create such polls in Slack.
How to Create a Poll in Slack
Summarize this article for me please⏰ 60-Second Summary
Slack polls help teams gather feedback and make quick decisions using features like emoji reactions or integrating third-party apps for more extensive options.
- Simple Poll lets you create quick, customizable polls in Slack using /poll. Options include anonymous voting, recurring polls, and multiple-choice answers
- Polly is a more advanced option, offering features like scheduled polls, anonymous responses, and detailed analytics
- SurveyMonkey works great for in-depth surveys. Create forms on their platform and share links in Slack for responses
- ClickUp integrates with Slack, making polling and decision-making efficient and effortless
- ClickUp Forms provide a robust alternative to Slack polls, allowing you to customize forms, collect detailed insights, and analyze responses using ClickUp Dashboards
- Best practices for polling include keeping questions simple, setting clear deadlines, and using tools like ClickUp to track and analyze results in real-time
Summarize this article for me pleaseDifferent Methods to Create Polls in Slack
Creating polls in Slack is easier than you think. Though Slack doesn’t have a built-in poll creator, there are plenty of ways to make it work for a quick survey.
From quick emoji reactions to dedicated polling apps for more detailed responses, Slack has the tools to make polling easy.
1. Emoji poll in a Slack message
Emoji reactions are a quick and informal way to run a simple poll in a Slack channel. Here’s how you can do it:
- Click the Compose button to post a Slack message outlining the poll question and options (e.g., “What time works best for the meeting? Option one: 10 AM, Option two: 2 PM”)
- Add the corresponding emojis to your message for each answer option
- Ask team members to vote by reacting with the emoji that matches their choice
You can spot the most popular choice with just a glance.
It’s perfect for quick surveys or single-question polls but not for multiple questions or anonymous responses.
🧠Fun Fact: Slack popularized the use of custom emojis in workplace communication, letting teams upload their own emojis to reflect their inside jokes, company culture, or just for laughs.
2. Simple Poll
Simple Poll is a famous polling app used to build Slack polls. It’s perfect for gathering quick inputs from your team.
Head to the Simple Poll website or the Slack App Directory, click Add to Slack, and authorize the app for your Slack workspace. Note that Simple Poll is a third-party platform that must be added to your Slack workspace before you can use it.
Now, there are two ways to create a poll in Simple Poll.
A) Using a shortcut
In the chat window, at the bottom left, there’s a handy Attachments & shortcuts button (the little plus symbol). Click it to get started.
If “Create poll with Simple Poll” doesn’t appear immediately, just type “poll” in the search bar, and it should appear.
Once you click the Simple Poll shortcut, a window will appear. You can add your questions, set up options, and tweak the settings to your liking.
When your poll is ready, click the Preview button. It will show you how your poll will look when it goes live.
B) Using the /poll command
Go to the Slack channel or direct message where you want to build the poll and type the /poll command followed by your question and answer options. For example:
Hit enter or send, and your poll will be live.
💡Pro Tip: You can further customize the poll by adding advanced keywords to your slash commands, like:
- ‘anonymous’ to keep responses private
- ‘recurring’ to create recurring polls at regular intervals
- ‘limit votes’ to restrict the number of times each participant can vote
- ‘allow-options’ to allow your team members to add options
For Example: /poll “What do you want to ensure we cover in the company meeting later?” “Hiring progress” “Party update” “Financials” allow-options anonymous
Hit Enter, and Simple Poll will create the poll in the channel or message. Your team can start voting right away!
3. Polly
Polly is another fantastic tool for creating Slack Polls, offering advanced features like poll scheduling and anonymous voting.
1. Visit the Slack App Directory and add Polly to your Slack workspace
2. In your preferred channel, type /polly followed by your question and options
3. A pop-up screen will appear that’ll allow you to select from different question types:
- Multiple choice
- Numeric Scales (1-5, 1-10)
- Agree/Disagree
- NPS (Net Promoter Score)
- Open-ended
4. Like Simple Poll, you can add extra options like Anonymous Polls, Multiple Votes, and Recurring Polls
5. Once your poll is ready, you can run it immediately or schedule it for the participants
6. Polly provides real-time results and updates so you can monitor survey results as your team responds.
👀 Did You Know? In Polly, once you create an anonymous poll/survey, you cannot make it non-anonymous later. But you can switch things around.
4. SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey, an online form builder software, is an excellent choice for building detailed polls or surveys with advanced question types. While it’s not built directly into Slack, you can easily share your SurveyMonkey polls with your team.
By integrating Slack and SurveyMonkey, you can use slash commands to ask simple questions and share surveys and results with the participants in Slack. For Example: /poll “What should we brainstorm about in our next session?”
If you’ve already built a more in-depth survey in SurveyMonkey, you can easily share it in your Slack channel with another simple command: /survey.
Summarize this article for me pleaseLimitations of Using Slack to Create Polls
- Slack polls often lack flexibility in customizing question types or designs, restricting how you gather feedback
- Polls can sometimes become scattered across different channels, making it hard to manage responses or track results in one place
- Creating advanced Slack polls (e.g., multi-question surveys) often requires installing third-party apps, which may come with additional costs or limitations
Also Read: How to Conduct User Research
Summarize this article for me pleaseCreate Polls with ClickUp
When it comes to seamless polling and collaboration, ClickUp—the everything app for work—offers a powerful alternative to Slack polls.
While Slack provides excellent options for basic polling and quick surveys, ClickUp takes things further with the ClickUp Form View by eliminating limitations like restricted customization and lack of detailed data collection.
🧠Fun Fact: The concept of polling dates back to the 19th century. George Gallup conducted the first scientific public opinion poll in the United States in 1935, which laid the groundwork for modern polling techniques.
Why ClickUp Forms?
Imagine you’re planning a company retreat and want to gather everyone’s preferences for activities…or lunch. While a quick Slack poll might work, you’ll likely need more flexibility to capture multiple preferences, comments, or even rankings.
With ClickUp Forms, you can:
- Design fully customizable polls tailored to your needs
- Collect detailed responses, including open-ended feedback
- Share the link via ClickUp Chat (or Slack) for easy access. ClickUp Chat lets you highlight the link as an ‘Announcement’ so it doesn’t get missed. You can also send respondents a Reminder via ClickUp to submit their responses on time!
With ClickUp, every step of your poll happens within the same app, eliminating the need to switch between apps or install third-party tools. You begin by creating a poll in ClickUp Forms, sharing it via ClickUp’s in-built Chat, and analyzing responses within ClickUp via custom reports and dashboards. Could it get any more efficient than this?
How to create a poll using ClickUp Form View
Creating a poll in ClickUp’s Form View is as quick as it’s intuitive. Here’s how to do it:
1. Set up a form
- Navigate to the ClickUp workspace where you want to manage the poll
- Go to Form View and select the appropriate option. You can either choose an existing Form template or make a new form from scratch (templates will be much faster, of course!)
- Build your poll using drag-and-drop features to add questions/categories. You can use multiple-choice, dropdowns, or even text boxes for open-ended responses
This has to be the easiest way to create polls. Agreed?
2. Customize your poll
- Take advantage of ClickUp’s default Custom Fields like “Name,” “Email,” or “Priority” for surveys. You can customize them to suit your needs
- Use conditional logic to guide respondents based on their previous answers. For example, if someone selects “Yes” for attending a retreat, they could be prompted to choose preferred dates or activities
- Use ClickUp’s templates for inspiration as well as fast-tracking your poll setup. For example, the ClickUp Form Template lets you set up a generic registration form to gather inputs from respondents in minutes
3. Share the poll
- Once the form is ready and published, copy the link with a single click
- Post it in ClickUp Chat or your Slack channel for easy team access and let participants respond directly
4. Track responses
- View responses in real time from the Form View in ClickUp
- As responses come in, they are directly synced with Tasks in ClickUp. This ensures you can act on feedback immediately
Also Read: 15 Best Chat Platforms
Integration with Slack
But that’s not all! With ClickUp’s Slack integration, you can send survey notifications or reminders directly to Slack. This ensures that everyone has a chance to participate, bridging any gaps between platforms.
Summarize this article for me pleaseBest Practices for Effective Polling
Want more people to respond to your polls? You’ll need to start by creating better polls!
Here are some tips to maximize participation and engagement in your polls:
- Set clear objectives: Start with a well-defined purpose for the poll to ensure the questions are concise, relevant, and easy to understand
- Keep it simple: Use straightforward language and provide multiple response options to accommodate diverse perspectives
- Promote widely: Share the poll across email, chat platforms, or dashboards to reach a broader audience. ClickUp Notifications help you out by reminding people to submit their responses
- Offer incentives: Encourage participation by explaining how the results will be used or offering small rewards
- Create a sense of urgency: Set a clear deadline to motivate participants to respond promptly
Once you have the poll results in, it’s equally important to extract actionable insights that can help drive effective decision-making:
- Identify trends: Aggregate data to uncover patterns or trends in responses. Use demographic filters, if applicable, to understand the perspectives of different groups
- Visualize data: Present results through charts or graphs to make findings more accessible and actionable
- Highlight key takeaways: Focus on insights that align with project goals or organizational KPIs, and don’t overlook outliers or unexpected responses that could provide unique perspectives
- Communicate transparently: Share results with participants and stakeholders to foster trust and encourage future engagement
Implement these best practices with ClickUp
ClickUp offers robust tools to make polling and analysis extremely effective for you. Create a custom poll results dashboard with ClickUp Dashboards, using widgets like pie charts or bar graphs to visualize response data at a glance.
You can even monitor participation rates using progress-tracking widgets or activity views to identify engagement levels. Use ClickUp’s reporting tools to generate summaries and link poll outcomes to specific goals using ClickUp Goals.
Finally, don’t forget to add comments to dashboards or reports and summarize findings in ClickUp Docs for easy sharing with the team.
By designing polls with clear objectives, analyzing results strategically, and utilizing ClickUp’s powerful features, you can turn polling into a strategic asset that enhances team collaboration and drives data-backed decisions.
💡 Pro Tip: Include an optional open-ended question alongside the multiple-choice options when crafting your poll. This allows respondents to share insights, suggestions, or unique perspectives that predefined answers might not capture.
Summarize this article for me pleaseBring Out Your Best Form (Pun Intended) with ClickUp
Polling is one of those underrated tools that can make your work life much easier. Whether it’s a quick emoji reaction poll in Slack or a more detailed one using Simple Poll or Polly, it’s all about gathering feedback and making democratic decisions.
But sometimes, you need more than just a simple vote.
When you’ve got deadlines, preferences, and input flying in from all directions, a quick Slack poll helps, but ClickUp gathers detailed responses, filters them by team priorities, and sees it all laid out in real-time reports.
With ClickUp, creating polls is functional, insightful, and—dare we say it—fun.
Don’t settle for just “good enough.” Sign up for your free ClickUp account today, and make your next poll a game-changer!
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