How to Create an Anonymous Poll in Slack

👋 Hey there! Want to run anonymous polls in Slack without fear of judgment or backlash? 😬 MegaVote gives your team a powerful way to share honest opinions anonymously. In this post, we'll show you how to create an anonymous poll in Slack using MegaVote, step by step. By the end, you'll know how to use anonymous polls to improve collaboration, communication, and decision-making within your team. 🚀

Before continuing, make sure you have installed MegaVote in your Slack workspace and are familiar with polling and voting in Slack. If you need an introduction, start with How to Create a Poll in Slack. Now, let's dive in! 💪

😰 Mistakes Can Happen: Using Public Polls to Ask Sensitive Questions

Have you ever conducted a poll only to find out later that you made a big mistake? That's what happened to me recently. I conducted a poll on a sensitive topic, and as a result, some team members were unhappy with the outcome.

The problem was that I used a public poll, which displayed people's names and choices. As a result, some people felt pressured to choose a particular option, even if it wasn't what they really wanted. I asked my team the following question with MegaVote:

/megavote "💰💸💰 Team budget surplus! Should we donate some of it to a school affected by a typhoon?👩‍❤️‍👨 Vote now!🔥" "💰💰 100%" "💰 50%" "🙅‍♀️ Sorry!"

The poll results looked unrealistic, with almost everyone choosing to donate 100% or 50%. It was clear that I needed to make a change.

💡 Fixing the Problem: Using Anonymous Polls with Slack

To avoid a similar situation in the future, I decided to use an Anonymous Poll for our team's next vote. I chose MegaVote, a Slack app that supports anonymous polling. Only the total number of votes is displayed, and results are revealed after the poll closes. Voter names remain anonymous, even to me as the vote organizer. This ensures that everyone can express an opinion freely, without fear of judgment or pressure to conform to a particular outcome.

/megavote "💰💸💰 Team budget surplus! Should we donate some of it to a school affected by a typhoon?👩‍❤️‍👨 Vote now!🔥" "💰💰 100%" "💰 50%" "🙅‍♀️ Sorry!"

In the vote details, I set:

• Anonymity: Anonymous
• Show Results: Once Closed

After the results came in, I was relieved to see an accurate representation of our team's opinions. Out of 20 team members, 9 chose to donate 0%, 8 chose 50%, and only 3 chose 100%. The resulting donation amount was 35%. More importantly, everyone felt happy and engaged because they could share their true opinions without fear of judgment or backlash.

Donation: 35% 👏 (9 x 0% + 8 x 50% + 3 x 100%)

⚠️ The result below is only a sample, not the actual result from my team.

👌 Conclusion: MegaVote to the Rescue

I'm grateful to have discovered MegaVote and its anonymous polling feature. The clip below demonstrates the complete process of creating an anonymous poll in Slack so you can avoid the same mistake.

The lesson is simple: for sensitive topics, use the right tools and choose rules that fit the situation. Team engagement is about people, so everyone should feel comfortable and valued.

Thanks for reading!