If Slack is the remote work tool your organization used, then you should take advantage of it by really utilizing its work-management features. While there is no built-in to-do feature, there is a great, free app called Todo. that integrates with Slack wonderfully. That's the app I'm going to introduce you to in this guide. Wunderlist Slack app helps you create to-do lists collaboratively. It works as an efficient task manager, sending timely reminders so that deadlines aren’t missed. You can add comments, create and complete a to-do right from Slack. Wunderlist like other Slack to-do apps also allows you to maintain personal lists that are invisible to your team.
- For all your other needs, try Slack apps. Whether you want to get your team’s feedback, be notified for each new task, or just keep the fun going in your team, chances are there’s already a Slack app that can do that for you. But with so many to choose from, we’ve decided to give you a hand.
- In a matter of minutes and without a single line of code, Zapier allows you to automatically send info between Microsoft To-Do and Slack. Get started with workflows like: Send direct Slack messages with new Microsoft To-Do lists. Or check out the rest of our guided workflows.
Geekbot is an asynchronous meeting tool that integrates with your organization’s Slack account. Many teams use Geekbot to run standups and retrospectives, but our features aren’t limited to that.
Geekbot is also an easy to use polling software that integrates with Slack, letting you easily run polls to gain insights from your team.
This post shows you how to use Geekbot to do a poll in Slack in 6 steps.
Note: Are you ready to start running polls in Slack? Geekbot is free for smaller teams with less than 10 users. We also offer a paid option for larger teams which you can try out free for 30 days.
1. Create a New Slack Poll
As you can see below, we have ready-made templates for daily standups, quick check-ins, retrospectives, team feedback, and more.
Because we’re creating a poll, we’ll need a specific type of customization, so instead of selecting a specific template, click on “Build your own” in the upper right-hand corner.
That will take you to a Custom Report screen.
Custom Reports are broken down into four key areas, where you can specify poll options, including:
- “Basic”: For the name of the poll, where it’s going to be broadcasted, and whether it’s anonymous or not.
- “Questions”: What question(s) do you want answered, and how do you want your responses (numeric, dropdown list, free response, etc.)?
- “Participants”: Who gets the poll? Is it everyone in a certain Slack channel or only specific people?
- “Schedule”: When does the poll get sent out? On a recurring schedule? Or only once?
In the three steps below, we will take a closer look at the key areas of creating a Slack poll with Geekbot.
2. Name Your Poll
You can name your poll and select where you want it broadcasted.
For example, do you want your Slack poll posted in your team’s #general channel, or is this poll for a different channel, such as your developer or user research channel?
At this stage, you can also select whether or not this is an anonymous poll.
Sometimes anonymous polls are chosen when you want your team to speak or vote without fear of repercussions.
3. Write Your Questions
Next, you’re going to write the question(s) you want your team to answer.
Note: There is no limit to how many questions you can add to your Slack poll.
If you click the gear icon on the questions bar, you can select “Pick type” or “Pick Color”.
When you click “Pick Type”, you’re taken to a screen where you can select between several different types of responses.
- Plain text: Users can freely type any kind of answer.
- Numeric: Users can only respond using numbers. This is great if you’re looking for percentages or easily quantifiable data.
- Pre-defined: Users can select from predefined responses or responses you’re providing.
- Random: Users receive a question at random from a list.
The image above is an example of what it looks like when you select “Pre-defined” as your response type.
With Geekbot, you can also write an intro message. This is the first Slack message your team sees, and it can be as simple as, “It’s time for our weekly poll!”
You can also type an outro message. An outro message is usually something simple such as, “Thank you for completing today’s poll.”
Bonus: With Geekbot, you can use emojis in your Intro and Outro message to make your Slack poll more engaging, emotive, and friendly. 🙂
4. Select Your Participants
With Geekbot, you can either manually add participants to your poll or sync your poll to a specific Slack channel.
If you wanted only the responses of a few team members who aren’t grouped neatly into one channel, then just add their names to the list manually. Geekbot pulls all available names from your organization’s Slack workspace.
Note: With Geekbot, there’s no maximum or minimum number of participants required to run a Slack poll.
5. Schedule Your Slack Poll
Next, it’s time to schedule your Slack poll.
You can pick the frequency of when your Slack poll is sent out, selecting from a dropdown list of options, including:
- One time only
- Weekly
- 2 Week Period
- 3 Week Period
- 4 Week Period
- First week of each month
- Last week of each month
You can also select what day(s) to send out the poll, along with what time.
When scheduling a time: it’s convenient to select the time you want (such as 9:00 in the morning) and then to have Geekbot automatically factor in each participant’s respective time zone. This way everyone gets the poll when it’s convenient for them, minimizing the interruption to their workflow.
6. Send Out Your Slack Poll
Once you’ve filled out all of the appropriate fields, you can now schedule your Slack poll to get sent out. Participants will get a DM in Slack, asking them to complete the poll. For example:
When you get your poll results, you can view them in two different ways.
First, you can view them directly in Slack. For example:
But you can also view responses as a whole from your Geekbot dashboard.
In the above image, you can see that 73% of your team filled out the poll (with five missing participants) and most team members agree that they’d appreciate freshly squeezed juices over fresh veggies and yogurt dips.
Final Thoughts: The Many Benefits of Using Geekbot
We use Geekbot to run Slack polls whenever we need them. It’s a quick and easy way to get information from your team.
Plus, there are dozens of ways teams can use Geekbot to improve their company culture.
For example, GitLab uses Geekbot to do remote work check-ins and build camaraderie. Other customers use a feature called Geekbot Sentiment (where Geekbot measures team happiness).
Also, as we’ve mentioned, many teams use Geekbot to run asynchronous remote work meetings, such as standups, retrospectives, and more.
If you’re ready to start using Geekbot, click here to start your free trial.
Frequently asked questions
Can You Make Polls in Slack?
Yes, you can easily make polls in Slack using various polling apps, such as Geekbot, Polly, and Simple Poll.
To get started, navigate to the Slack app directory and type in the polling software you want to use.
For example, if you wanted to install our tool — Geekbot — then type it in the search bar.
When Geekbot pops up, just click on “Sign In to install” (if you’re not already logged in).
From there, you can create an account and start running polls in Slack.
7 Ways to Connect Microsoft Teams and Slack in 2021
This post exists to answer the question: Does Microsoft Teams integrate with Slack?
We know chat must be native, seamless, and simple to administer. But with both Microsoft Teams and Slack dominating the team collaboration market, enterprises using both apps need to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Most notably, we hear from customers that were thinking about moving from Slack to Microsoft Teams or blocking Slack in favor of Microsoft Teams, and vice versa.
Does Microsoft teams integrate with Slack?
Rather than continue working in silos, we’ve highlighted 7 ways to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams then gone out and found a better one for internal use and a better one for external use.
1 – Connect Slack and Microsoft Teams without introducing a new chat client
Native federation
Pros:
There are services in the marketplace that allow you to federate with other enterprises via their own chat client, but this doesn’t resolve the issue of multiple chat platforms in a single organization.
It does, however, bring them together in a slightly improved chat client.
Natively, apps like Skype for Business also provide this functionality. Skype for Business users just
Cons:
Some UC providers have started to introduce cross-platform messaging into their collaboration offerings.
Whilst this does remedy the issue of switching between multiple apps, the solution here is to totally replace the solution you are already invested in.
You can message any number of other businesses using most chat apps. But, this comes with the disadvantage of giving up the native app that everybody uses.
Guest access
Pros:
Take the typical example where your engineering team loves Slack and your IT and Sales teams prefer Teams.
Guest access on both platforms allows external parties to join in the conversation, but access is limited.
Cons:
Removing either (or both) of Slack and Microsoft Teams, in favor of a catch-all UC solution, almost always results in using Slack and Teams for some services.
Obviously, this is the ideal scenario for the UC provider. However, they may not always be the best fit for the business.
Moving your messaging stack to a new product could still leave you heavily invested in Microsoft Office 365 – a waste of a powerful app already paid for in your Office 365 strategy.
2 – Configure webhooks for Slack & Microsoft Teams
Pros:
By using webhooks, you have a low-cost solution to a complex enterprise issue.
Webhooks also take little time to configure per scenario. If the issue exists in a single channel, webhooks are a good solution to a large scale problem.
Cons:
The downside to using webhooks revolves around the amount of manual configuration required.
When you are dealing with multiple channels in an enterprise scenario, webhooks are simply not scalable.
They also don’t tend to display in a native way, and instead, from a bot.
End users have to re-train behavior in order to message cross-platform, and who has time for that? You? Didn’t think so.
In an organization of a few hundred or more, remembering who uses what platform becomes impossible to mentally track.
News also broke in April 2020 when it was discovered some Slack webhooks has been exposed as potential phishing hooks.
Researchers said there are nearly 131,000 Slack webhook URLs available on the Internet.
3 – Use APIs & bots to connect Slack & Microsoft Teams
Pros:
Bots for Slack and Microsoft Teams are on the rise. Bots can be leveraged to create a more native experience.
Microsoft publishes a Slack connector in its connector inventory that enables some Slack and Microsoft Teams crossover.
You will benefit from functionality like joining a Slack channel and can even set triggers for certain events.
Tasks In Slack
However, limited functionality stops experiments pretty quickly. For example, direct messaging goes totally unmentioned.
Cons:
Most users, especially in the enterprise space, are still in the experimental phase in terms of users being comfortable using them.
One Github community working on a tool to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams expressed concerns that various API and migration tools are limited to basic functionality.
Most of these solutions are still configuration based.
This means you will spend incredible time and resource making each channel work for you – and maintain this configuration as you add and modify channels.
4 – Create your own app using an app builder
Pros:
Generally, app builders are simple to use.
With a no-code approach, you don’t need to hire a specialist engineer to connect Slack and Microsoft Teams
You can get a free trial to play around with your requirements.
Most app builders support a wide range of apps to integrate like Slack, Google Sheets, and Trello.
Cons:
Functionality is limited by the supported features available on a particular app builder.
One user got in touch with Mio for a replacement solution to using an app builder stating:
“I tried an app builder but it was too limited. Threads didn’t work, and users name matching was absent. “
The functionality will also be limited by your own building skills and requirements gathering.
While support is available with most app builders, it is considered a DIY approach to connecting Slack and Microsoft Teams.
5 – Slack and Microsoft Teams calling integration
The integration between Slack and Microsoft Teams VoIP functionality arrived as part of a comprehensive update at Enterprise Connect, April 2020.
Pros:
The update allows for Microsoft Teams calls to start through Slack. You can access the integration through the shortcuts button on Slack. This lightning-bolt shaped icon near your message input field allows you to start a Teams call instantly.
If you prefer the Slash command option on Slack, then you can opt for the /Teams-Calls to launch your Teams call from Slack instead.
Cons:
Unfortunately, the Slack and Teams calling integration is limited. It only connects one aspect of Slack and Microsoft Teams.
You can start a call through Microsoft Teams in Slack this way, but you can’t send instant messages or send files from someone on Slack to someone on Teams.
Tom Arbuthnot, Principal Solutions Architect at Modality Systems and Microsoft MVP, agrees the Slack and Teams calling integration is not a complete solution for connecting Slack and Microsoft Teams.
“The Slack “integration” to Microsoft Teams, while clever, is really just Microsoft Teams meeting join link in Slack that fires up Microsoft Teams to join the Teams meeting.”
Users often ask for further integration like being able to directly call or chat from one platform to another.
Team collaboration tools should allow access to a wide range of communication options. That makes the latest integration restrictive. After all, there’s a lot more to Slack and Microsoft Teams than just calling.
In an interview for UC Today, our CEO Tom Hadfield commented on news of the integration:
“The future of intercompany collaboration relies on full interoperability between Slack and Microsoft Teams. Cross-platform calling is a good start, but our customers tell us what they really need is cross-platform shared channels and direct messaging.”
6 – Use the Microsoft Graph API to migrate Slack to Teams
Microsoft is working on a migration API to help IT managers and Microsoft admins migrate chats from Slack to Teams.
As of September 2020, Microsoft has made documentation available and certain tenants can sign up to the beta program.
In theory, Microsoft wants to allow Slack messages to be migrated over to Teams without a delay or break in service and/or conversation.
The in-scope and out-of-scope items are included below:
Pros:
Previous attempts to migrate Slack to Teams have resulted in a loss of historical data and messages. The new migration API changes that.
As Tom Morgan, Product Innovation Architect at Modality Systems, pointed out his blog, an organization might be moving from Slack to Teams but have 5+ years worth of message history in Slack.
Previously, in this scenario, there have been workarounds that result in a disjointed and almost unworkable experience. With the migration API, theoretically, all messages and message information should be transferred over.
For businesses who decide they must migrate from Slack to Teams, instead of choosing interoperability between the two apps, this is the most likely option of keeping your Slack users happy.
Cons:
A game changer for most businesses is that messages can only be imported into public channels. If you plan to use private channels, Microsoft doesn’t offer support for this.
One further restriction is the lack of support for backups.
As documented by Tony Redmond, Principal at Redmond & Associates and Author of the Office 365 for IT Pros Book, this process doesn’t include a backup.
“The lack of a backup and restore API for Teams that covers team structure and content is regrettable. Because Teams is interconnected with the rest of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, it is a difficult application to backup. But that’s no reason for Microsoft to ignore the need.”
Tom Morgan also pointed out that the whole process made his head hurt.
“It’s a ‘behind the curtain’ operation that changes how I think about Teams messages. These aren’t operations for the every day, but if you need to migrate over messages from third-party systems into Microsoft Teams, these API calls will give you the power you need to achieve it. Just, make sure you don’t break any other parts of the delicate balance of time and space whilst you’re at it.”
7 – Federation to connect to external guests across Slack and Teams
Do you communicate with people outside your organization as well?
According to research, they’ll likely be using Slack or Microsoft Teams, but not necessarily the same as you.
Create A Checklist In Slack
It’s hard to chat with freelancers, contractors, and suppliers when you’re not on the same platform.
When this is the case, it becomes extremely unproductive moving out of your app to accommodate your guest.
Or even worse, end up resorting to email like it’s the 90s. (Okay, email has a purpose but you get the point).
That’s why Mio has created universal channels for Microsoft Teams with Slack.
Slack To Download
You can stay in Teams and send messages to your contractors, suppliers, or clients that use Slack.
They stay in their platform too and Mio translates the messages across platform.
Microsoft To Do Slack Integration
And it’s not just messages that are supported! GIFs, emojis, channels, DMs, and message edits/deletes are all supported.
If this sounds like something you need, try your first universal channel for free here. Your first three are completely free.
Slack To Do App
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