LinkORB Engineering

Using polls to make group decisions

Asynchronous collaboration is a staple of how we work at LinkORB. This means team members don’t have to be physically or virtually present nor do they need to communicate in real time before projects move forward.

In this largely asynchronous workflow, discussions in Cyans topics are not always the most efficient process to reach a consensus on group decisions. Since group decisions are usually a matter of choosing between two (or more) good options with equally good arguments, we streamline the decision-making process by using polls.

Create a poll

StrawPoll is our preferred tool for conducting polls. You may create a poll seeking the team’s opinion on a matter as follows:

  1. Visit StrawPoll.
  2. Click the Sign up button at the top right of the screen.
  3. Fill out your first name (or nickname), email address, and password.
  4. Click the I agree button.
  5. Click Sign up.
  6. Log into the email account you’ve used to register a StrawPoll account.
  7. Open the confirmation message from StrawPoll and click the confirmation link.
  8. Log into your StrawPoll account.
  9. Click Create Poll at the top of the screen.
  10. Enter the poll question in the Title field.
  11. Choose the voting type (multiple choice by default).
  12. Fill out the answer options for the poll.
  13. Toggle the Require participant’s names button to enable it.
  14. Click Create poll.

Note that StrawPoll will send you a notification for each vote on your poll. If the notifications become a disturbance or a distraction, please disable the notifications from your StrawPoll account’s settings.

A note on writing poll response options

Always add a response option for “I’ve thought about it but I have no preference” when creating a multiple-choice poll.

Share a poll with the team

Share your poll with your team (or teammates you need their input) and briefly explain the motivation for your poll, urging them to please respond.

Ideally, a team should have a dedicated Cyans topic for sharing polls. The Engineering team, for example, shares polls through the Engineering votes 👎/👍 Cyans topic.

Polls that end in a tie

Most polls will produce a clear winner. However, some may result in a tie. If your poll results in a tie, please consult with participants on how to move forward.

The accompanying comment of each post can also provide supporting arguments for why the team should prefer one option over the other(s) despite the tie.