Let's face it, scheduling large meetings can be a colossal pain in the neck. The constant game of email ping-pong, trying to find a time that doesn't clash with everyone's calendars, is a nightmare. And when you finally do manage to set a date, half the attendees don't even show up.

You’re looking for a simpler way.

Meet Upvote, the Slack app that changes the way you schedule big meetings. With Upvote, you can say goodbye to those endless email threads and hello to a streamlined, efficient process.

What’s the deal?

With Upvote, you can solicit everyone's availability at a glance.

Upvote displays everyone's responses in a clear, visual format, so you can quickly see who's available when.

Upvote makes it incredibly easy to create polls with multiple time options. Simply select the dates and times you're available, and Upvote will generate a poll that you can share with your team in Slack.

How to run a meeting poll with Upvote?

Step 0 - Add Upvote to you Slack workspace

It takes a minute until you're ready to go. Simply visit https://upvote.chat and click the Add to Slack button.

Step 1 - Go to Upvote home page in Slack

Search for Upvote in Slack search bar to go to the app home page.

Your Upvote home page will look something like this:

Step 2 - Start with a template

If you click on Poll Templates you'll be able to pick a ready made quick poll for meeting time.

Just click ✨ Create this poll.

Step 3 - Edit your poll options

Set your poll title, choose the channel to send to, enter your meeting times.

If you want you can schedule the poll for a later time, or even make it recurring.

When ready, hit Preview, double check everything and click Send.

Step 4 - That's it

Watch the votes come in, directly in Slack.

For a bigger audience, you'll find the web grid view convenient.

To access it, locate the poll in a channel and click the settings button with three dots [···].

In the popup, click Dashboard → and you'll be taken to Upvote web dashboard.

Real-Life Use Cases

Here's how the existing Upvote users streamline their big meeting schedules:

• A marketing team uses Upvote to schedule weekly brainstorming sessions
• A remote team uses Upvote to find a time for their virtual stand-ups
• A customer service team uses Upvote to schedule one-on-one meetings with customers
• A sales team uses Upvote to coordinate outreach efforts with potential clients
• A human resources team uses Upvote to plan company-wide events
• An amateur soccer club in Texas uses Upvote to confirm training attendance among their members

Want to know what else Upvote can do for you - check our How-to Guides

For a quick overview of features and pricing tiers (ofc you can start for free) - check https://upvote.chat/

The meeting check-in ritual is a simple but effective way to start any meeting. Instead of going straight into the agenda, taking some time at the beginning for a few casual questions can set you up for a more productive meeting.

For example, you can start by asking everyone to take a minute to check in with each other or by having everyone write down their thoughts on a piece of paper. This helps people feel more connected and allows for better communication overall. It also sets the tone for the meeting, letting people know that this is a safe space where they can share their thoughts and ideas freely.

Why are check-in questions not a waste of time?

In a complex environment, a lot of factors influence the motivation, productivity and success of a team. Aside from the core work topics, it's important to consider people's well-being, how they feel about their recent workload, how satisfied or dissatisfied they feel about work, etc.

The quality of collaboration is another key factor of success. And the key to effective collaboration is trust between team members. In a 2022 Harvard Business Review article, Why Your Team Members Need Daily Check-Ins, Stacia Garr talks about the importance of genuine connections between people in an organization:

Our research found that employees crave genuine connections not just with their colleagues, but also across hierarchies within their organization. More specifically, when someone feels that their relationship with their manager is authentic, and that their manager wants to give them the tools they need to successfully do their job, that person is less stressed, more satisfied, and more likely to stay at the company.

Check-in questions are a simple and effective step toward this goal. Often a simple question such as "What is one remarkable thing you did today?" can help people feel included and heard.

In a bigger meeting, the check in questions easily bring everyone's focus into the room.

They're also an effective tool for building rapport in a 1-1 setting. A simple "What are you thinking about today?" is a very powerful way to start a conversation.

Examples of check-in questions

There are many ways to kick off a check-in ritual. Generally, it comes down to asking a light personal question, unrelated to the specific agenda of the meeting.

For a small meeting it can be done informally, as a casual chat. In a larger meeting you may want to make it more structured - have everyone write their answers on a sticky note, have people check-in in pairs, or even use a polling software such as Upvote for Slack.

Of course, you want to avoid being repetitive - don't be that person that opens every meeting with "All right, how was everyone's weekend?". Here we list a dozen examples of awesome check-in questions.

Typically, you can start either with an icebreaker question completely unrelated to work or with a more targeted easy question that helps you sense the pulse of the team or the person.

Fun ice breakers

1. What book have you read that was life-changing?
2. If you could have any pet, what would it be?
3. Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?
4. What is something you never thought you'd be able to do, until you actually did it?
5. What's your go-to karaoke song?
6. Have you tried any new restaurants or activities recently?
7. Have you seen any good movies or TV shows lately?
8. Or check out our list of 50+ fun ice breaker poll questions.

Pulse questions about work and motivation

1. How is your workload this week?
2. How are you feeling today?
3. What is currently your main concern?
4. How do you feel about yesterday's planning session?
5. What excites the most about the job?
6. What frustrated you the most in the past month?
7. What is your biggest obstacle?
8. What are you thinking about today?
9. What was the most enjoyable/fun task you've had in the past few weeks?
10. What was the most draining thing for you in the past week?
11. Describe your current mood with a single word (use sticky notes or word clouds)
12. What are you feeling the most positive about today?
13. What do you wish people were taking more/less seriously?
14. What word best describes work lately?
15. Give one example of excellent teamwork we did last week

Fun and quick polls can be a great way to break the ice and get people talking. You can also use them to generate interest in a topic, or get feedback on something. Generally, they are great tool to engage your team and involve everyone from the start.

How and when to use fun polls? You could use them to cheer up before a big meeting, such as a retrospective. You can use them to get to know each others preferences or as a starter to get your new teammates to share something interesting about themselves.

How to deliver these polls? You can improvise in countless ways or you can use a team polling tool such as Upvote for Slack.

That said, there are different types of fun polls for you to choose. Depending on the occasion, you may want an ice breaker question, a this or that question, or a thought provoking would you rather poll. Discussing the answers is guaranteed to energize and engage your team members.

Want to include this in your next team meeting? Here are 50+ poll templates to get you started.

Ice breakers

1. If you could trade places with any celebrity for a day, who would it be?
2. What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
3. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would be your first purchase?
4. What's a weird hobby you have?
5. What would be your dream vacation?
6. If you could describe yourself with any three adjectives, what would they be?
7. If you could have any career in the world, what would it be?
8. What's a place you've always wanted to visit but haven't?
9. What's something you're passionate about but few people know about?
10. Who is your spirit animal?
11. If you could have any pet, what would it be?
12. What's an interesting fact about yourself that most people don't know?
13. If you could have a conversation with anyone alive or dead, who would it be?
14. If you could go back in time and relive one moment for the rest of your life, what would it be?
15. Can you play an instrument? If not, what do you wish you could play?
16. What book have you read that was life-changing?
17. What's the funniest encounter you've ever had?
18. If you could act in any movie, which movie would you want to act in?
19. What would you do with a time machine?

This-or-that questions

1. Office or home?
2. Desktop or laptop?
3. Slack or email?
4. Mac or PC?
5. Conference call or in-person meeting?
6. Brainstorming session or individual work time?
7. Call a meeting or send an email?
8. Doing something or procrastinating?
9. 9 to 5 or 8 to 4?
10. Analysis or action?
11. Pizza or tacos?
12. Dogs or cats?
13. Coffee or tea?
14. Summer or winter?
15. Snowboarding or skiing
16. Open space or cubicles?
17. Early bird or night owl?
18. Books or movies?

"Would you rather" questions

1. Would you rather be able to teleport anywhere or be able to read people's thoughts?
2. Would you rather have a job where you had to wear a costume or a job where you had to work weekends?
3. Would you rather have co-workers who are always late or co-workers who are always early?
4. Would you rather have a boring desk job or a dangerous job?
5. Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?
6. Would you rather live in a world with no pain or a world with no fear?
7. Would you rather always be cold or always be hot?
8. Would you rather be able to speak any language or be able to fluently speak all animal languages?
9. Would you rather have a million dollars or true love?
10. Would you rather live in a world without humans or a world without animals?
11. Would you rather be alone for the rest of your life or always surrounded by people?
12. Would you rather never have to sleep again or never have to eat again?
13. Would you rather have infinite intelligence or infinite wealth?
14. Would you rather be immortal or have infinite knowledge?
15. Would you rather be able to time travel or be able to teleport?