You do not need a survey platform, a licence request or an IT ticket to ask your team a question and get a ranked answer. You need a good question and a link. Here is how to set one up from nothing.
1. Write one question
The question decides everything else. A good one has many possible answers and is about something your group can influence.
- Good: What one change would make our team work better together?
- Good: Which of these should we do first?
- Too wide: Any ideas?
- Too narrow: Should we move the meeting to Tuesday? A show of hands does that job.
Read it out loud. If a colleague cannot answer it in a sentence, narrow it.
2. Add a handful of starter ideas
An empty page is hard to start on. A few starter ideas give the first person to arrive something to react to, and they show the kind of answer you want. Write them from things you have already heard in conversations. Keep them short, and make them different from each other.
Starter ideas also matter for voting. People vote by choosing between two ideas, so there must be enough ideas to compare. Aim for a dozen or so to begin with. Your group will add more.
3. Choose the end date
Two weeks is a good default. It is long enough for people in different time zones and shifts to take part, and short enough that the project does not drift. You can change the date later if you need to.
4. Share one link
Participants do not need an account or an email to join. They open the link, vote, and add ideas if they want to. Put the link where your people already are:
- an email from you, with the question in the first line
- a message in your team chat
- the intranet
- a poster or slide with a QR code
If you want to know who has joined, send personal links instead. You will see who joined without seeing how anyone voted.
5. Say what will happen next
People take part when they know the answer will go somewhere. Before you send the link, decide what you will do with the top ideas and tell people. For example: In two weeks we will share the top five and pick two to start on.
6. Watch it, lightly
While the project is open, check how many people have joined. If numbers are low after a few days, send a short reminder from the person people trust most. Do not change the question halfway through.
7. Close it and act
When it ends, you have a ranked list, themes, and a report you can share. Tell everyone what came out on top and thank them. Then pick what to do and who will do it.
What you do not need
You do not need a long form, a workshop or a facilitator. The format is built so that a single question and a short window are enough.