HR & Engagement Writer
1
Top Ask Me Anything Templates for 2024
5 min read
Published: Jan 25, 2023
Revised on: May 24, 2024
Here’s our curated shortlist and our reasons for liking each company; please click into each company to get more details:
- Assembly
- Easy to use and intuitive interface. Many reviews mentioned Assembly is simple, easy to navigate, and user-friendly.
- Good customer support. Reviews mentioned Assembly's support team is responsive in resolving issues.
- Rewards redemption process is smooth. Users liked the gift card and other reward options that can be redeemed with points.
- Integrates well with Slack and Microsoft Teams. The integration makes giving recognition quick and seamless.
- Good for employee recognition and engagement. Reviews highlighted Assembly's peer-to-peer recognition features that help boost employee morale.
- Howamigoing
- Easy to use interface and setup
- Ability to give and receive anonymous feedback
- Pre-made templates for different feedback scenarios
- Integrations with other tools like Slack
- Encourages more open and honest feedback
- Vevox
- Easy to use and intuitive interface. Many reviews mention how simple and straightforward it is to create polls, surveys, and questions in Vevox. The platform is easy for both administrators and participants.
- Engages audience and improves meeting interactivity. Vevox's features like polls, Q&A, and word clouds help keep attendees engaged during virtual or in-person meetings and events.
- Integrates well with PowerPoint and Microsoft Teams. The PowerPoint add-in and integration with Teams makes it easy to incorporate Vevox into existing presentations and meetings.
- Provides data and reporting. Vevox allows administrators to download results data that can be used for analysis and reporting afterwards.
- Great customer support. Many reviews specifically call out the excellent customer service and quick response times from the Vevox team.
- Polly
- Easy to integrate with Slack and Teams for seamless polling experience.
- Simple and intuitive user interface makes it easy to create and customize polls.
- Useful built-in templates allow you to quickly create polls for common use cases.
- Provides helpful analytics and charts to visualize poll results.
- Engages team members and adds fun to the work environment.
- Slido
- Easy to use and set up for both presenters and audience. Many reviews highlighted the intuitive interface.
- Integrates seamlessly into presentation tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides. This helps presenters toggle between slides and Slido easily.
- Provides various interactive features like polls, Q&As, word clouds to engage audience. Keeps audience interested and involved.
- Allows anonymous participation which encourages shy/hesitant people to contribute.
- Provides instant analytics and feedback through real-time results. Helps presenters adjust content accordingly.
Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions have become a popular means of engaging with audiences, providing a platform for open dialogue and transparent communication. However, organizing a successful AMA requires careful planning and structuring.
This article presents a curated list of AMA templates that help streamline the process, maximize engagement, and ensure your AMA session runs smoothly and effectively. Whether you're a seasoned professional or a newcomer to the world of AMAs, these templates offer valuable frameworks to enhance your interaction with participants and deliver an informative and enjoyable experience for all involved.
What Are Ask Me Anything (AMA) Sessions?
AMAs or Ask Me Anythings are open sessions where senior company members make themselves available to questions from other employees. Essentially, AMAs help business stakeholders get vulnerable with employees and form personal connections. They also assist in aligning everyone towards the same organizational goals.
AMAs are an excellent way for business leaders to engage with their employees at scale. They not only make it easy to give updates about what’s happening in the company but also allow employers to collect feedback on what’s important to their employees.
What Are the Benefits of Ask Me Anything Sessions?
It’s impossible to quantify the full benefits of AMAs on the health of any organization. These sessions help to improve team bonding and allow employees into senior leaders' minds, which helps build trust. More specifically, AMAs help to:
- Build a culture of transparency and accountability at work
- Humanize leaders and the leadership team
- Identify and solve employee problems early
- Create a work environment of openness, curiosity, and honesty
All in all, Ask Me Anything sessions open up a two-way communication channel between employees and business leaders. This, in turn, promotes healthy relationships, a healthy work environment, and increased employee productivity.
How to Conduct an Ask Me Anything Session?
Conducting an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session at work can be an excellent way to foster open communication, build transparency, and address concerns or curiosities among employees. Here are the steps to effectively conduct an AMA session:
1. Define the Purpose and Scope
- Objective: Clearly define the purpose of the AMA. It could be to discuss company updates, address team concerns, introduce new policies, or simply for open dialogue.
- Scope: Decide if the session will focus on specific topics or be open to any questions.
2. Choose the Right Platform
- Live vs. Asynchronous: Decide if the session will be live (in-person or via video conferencing) or asynchronous (via email, company intranet, or collaboration tools).
- Tools: Choose a suitable platform. For example, for asynchronous, consider using a tool that is a dedicated Q&A platform.
3. Announce the Session
- Timing: Announce the AMA session well in advance to give employees time to prepare their questions.
- Channels: Use multiple channels to announce the session, such as email, internal newsletters, and company chat platforms.
- Details: Include details such as the date, time, format, and how employees can submit their questions.
4. Encourage Participation
- Submission: Encourage employees to submit their questions beforehand. This can be done through a form, a shared document, or a specific email address.
- Anonymous Option: Provide an option for anonymous submissions to ensure that employees feel comfortable asking sensitive questions.
5. Prepare for the Session
- Review Questions: Go through the submitted questions in advance. Group similar questions together and prioritize them.
- Research Answers: Prepare answers, especially for complex or sensitive topics. Gather any necessary data or input from relevant departments.
- Set Ground Rules: Establish rules for the session, such as time limits for each question, respectful communication, and confidentiality for sensitive topics.
6. Conduct the AMA Session
- Introduction: Start with a brief introduction, explaining the purpose of the session and the ground rules.
- Moderation: Have a moderator to facilitate the session, manage time, and ensure that questions are addressed respectfully.
- Engagement: Encourage live participation and follow-up questions. If it's a live session, allow employees to raise their hands (virtually or physically) to ask questions.
What Are Tips for Hosting a Successful Ask Me Anything Session?
There are many moving parts to consider when hosting an AMA session. It can take time to decide what to focus on. With that in mind, here are tips for having a successful Ask Me Anything session.
- Consider Staff Needs Before Conducting an AMA: Conduct AMAs at convenient times when there is a higher probability of getting people to ask questions and read the answers. Businesses should also host AMAs on suitable platforms that encourage employee participation.
- Collect the Top Questions: After settling on a convenient time and tool, employers can collect pressing questions from employees before the AMA. In many cases, their Ask Me Anything software can help with this.
- Create an Agenda: Creating a schedule helps to keep the meeting on track and to ensure that frequently asked questions get enough airtime. Agendas also create a fun and engaging structure for AMAs.
- Encourage Anonymity: It can be terrifying for workers to give their opinions; therefore, AMAs must remove as many barriers to feedback as possible.
- Establish the Rules of Engagement: AMAs can quickly descend into a free-for-all situation, so moderators should establish guidelines for acceptable and unacceptable behavior before commencing.
- Manage the Expectations of Senior Company Members: All senior employees should receive coaching on answering difficult questions that employees could throw at them at any time.
- Collect Feedback and Follow-Up: After all is said and done, collecting feedback on how the AMA went is non-negotiable. After this, communicating plans and progress after the event is also a must-do.
Doing all of the above ensures that AMA sessions are not only productive but that they are also impactful.
Top 7 Ask Me Anything Templates of 2024
Pricing
$2.80 per user/month
- Free version
- Free trial available
- Seat Minimum: 1 User
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Assembly’s software saves businesses one day per week through its over 200 customizable workflows. A case in point is Assembly’s Ask Me Anything Template which makes it easier for teams to “connect, talk and grow together.” The Ask Me Anything flow also helps: When combined, all these improve general employee satisfaction and productivity levels.
Why Assembly?
- It’s an all-in-one tool kit for improving employee engagement, internal communications, boosting team productivity, and simplifying HR needs.
- Intuitive social feed design and user experience
- Single “source of truth” for accessing company documents and cultural initiatives
Why Not Assembly?
- No language localization capacity
Comments From Real Users:
Pros
- Easy to use and intuitive interface. Many reviews mentioned Assembly is simple, easy to navigate, and user-friendly.
- Good customer support. Reviews mentioned Assembly's support team is responsive in resolving issues.
- Rewards redemption process is smooth. Users liked the gift card and other reward options that can be redeemed with points.
- Integrates well with Slack and Microsoft Teams. The integration makes giving recognition quick and seamless.
- Good for employee recognition and engagement. Reviews highlighted Assembly's peer-to-peer recognition features that help boost employee morale.
Cons
- Limitations in analytics and reporting features. Some reviews wanted more detailed analytics and user statistics.
- Creating flows and automations can be tricky. Reviews noted workflows and automations are sometimes hard to setup.
- Limited customization options for recognitions. Users wanted more ways to customize recognitions with images/GIFs.
- Lack of mobile apps earlier on. Reviews mentioned lack of mobile apps made it hard to use when not by a computer.
- Confusion due to branding changes. Reviews noted frequent name changes of the reward units was confusing initially.
Pricing
$5.00 per user/month
- Free trial available
- No Seat Minimum
Are you looking for an aesthetically pleasing, easy-to-use, quick-to-set-up performance management system? If you answered yes to all of the above, you should check out Howamigoing. Howamigoing helps businesses retain valued employees by providing them with tools to get better feedback. From its 360° feedback template to pulse surveys to the Ask Me Anything template, Howamigoing is the ultimate weapon for unleashing your team’s best performance.
Why Howamigoing?
- Visually stunning and intuitive UI/UX
- Easy to use and get started
- Option to request public or private feedback
- Numerous ready-to-use templates designed by psychologists
Why Not Howamigoing?
- There is room for more HRIS integrations into the platform
Comments From Real Users:
Pros
- Easy to use interface and setup
- Ability to give and receive anonymous feedback
- Pre-made templates for different feedback scenarios
- Integrations with other tools like Slack
- Encourages more open and honest feedback
Cons
- Can take time to get team adoption and engagement
- Mobile/app access is limited
- Frequency of email reminders can be annoying
- Feedback character limits are sometimes small
- Data/analytics on user engagement could be better
3
Vevox
Pricing
$10.95 per user/month
- Free version
- No Seat Minimum
Vevox wears many hats. It’s an engagement software for online, in-person, and hybrid meetings & classes. Self-styled the #1 rated Polling and Q&A platform, Vevox offers numerous impressive features that make every user feel heard. Vevox is the secret ingredient for taking meetings from dull and routine to interactive, fun, and inclusive!
Why Vevox?
- Great tool for collecting anonymous feedback from people
- In-the-moment feedback and engagement from its live polls
- Data and analytics support uncovering employee insights and identifying trends
Why Not Vevox?
- There are some limitations on how it can work within the MS Teams environment
Comments from Real Users:
Pros
- Easy to use and intuitive interface. Many reviews mention how simple and straightforward it is to create polls, surveys, and questions in Vevox. The platform is easy for both administrators and participants.
- Engages audience and improves meeting interactivity. Vevox's features like polls, Q&A, and word clouds help keep attendees engaged during virtual or in-person meetings and events.
- Integrates well with PowerPoint and Microsoft Teams. The PowerPoint add-in and integration with Teams makes it easy to incorporate Vevox into existing presentations and meetings.
- Provides data and reporting. Vevox allows administrators to download results data that can be used for analysis and reporting afterwards.
- Great customer support. Many reviews specifically call out the excellent customer service and quick response times from the Vevox team.
Cons
- Mobile experience could be improved. Some reviewers found the experience on mobile devices via the app was not as seamless as on desktop.
- Steep learning curve initially. It can take some time to learn all of Vevox's features and how to fully utilize them.
- Limitations with PowerPoint integration. The PowerPoint add-in has some limitations compared to using the dashboard directly.
- Anonymous responses make follow-up difficult. Not being able to identify who submitted anonymous questions/responses makes follow-up challenging.
- Reporting functionality needs improvement. Some users felt the data reports and analytics could be enhanced to be more user friendly and insightful.
4
Polly
Pricing
$1.00 per user/month
- Free version
- Free trial available
- No Seat Minimum
Are you looking for a way to capture instant feedback on Slack, Teams, and Zoom? Look no further because Polly is the answer to your problems. Its extensive range of features makes it easy to capture employee opinion quickly and easily. In addition, Polly also automates repetitive tasks, provides smart surveys, and presents data in a visually appealing way. With Polly, users can confidently rest easy while Polly does all the hard work. Goodbye to stress, and Hello, Polly!
Why Polly?
- It comes equipped with real-time data visualization
- Employees have privacy controls to either share feedback with their names or anonymously
- Seamless integration with legacy software
Why Not Polly?
- The numerous customization options can make Polly tasking to set up
Comments from Real Users:
Pros
- Easy to integrate with Slack and Teams for seamless polling experience.
- Simple and intuitive user interface makes it easy to create and customize polls.
- Useful built-in templates allow you to quickly create polls for common use cases.
- Provides helpful analytics and charts to visualize poll results.
- Engages team members and adds fun to the work environment.
Cons
- Free version has limits on number of responses per month.
- Initial setup can have a learning curve.
- Reminder and scheduling options could be more flexible.
- More variety needed in trivia questions and engagement topics.
- User interface for creating polls could be streamlined further.
5
Slido
Pricing
$12.50 per user/month
- Free version
- Free trial available
- No Seat Minimum
Whether you’re meeting in person or virtually, Slido can help make your meetings interactive. Businesses can use live polls, Q&A sessions, quizzes, and word clouds to engage their participants, capture their views, and, most importantly, make everyone feel connected. The best part is that Slido is adaptable to various situations. Whether it is a team call, training, or an all-hands meeting, Slido has got you covered.
Why Slido?
- You can invite up to 100 participants on the free plan
- There is also email support on the free plan
- Slido has the event analytics feature
Why Not Slido?
- Slido doesn’t accept monthly payments. As such, the upfront cost may be heavy on small businesses
Comments from Real Users:
Pros
- Easy to use and set up for both presenters and audience. Many reviews highlighted the intuitive interface.
- Integrates seamlessly into presentation tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides. This helps presenters toggle between slides and Slido easily.
- Provides various interactive features like polls, Q&As, word clouds to engage audience. Keeps audience interested and involved.
- Allows anonymous participation which encourages shy/hesitant people to contribute.
- Provides instant analytics and feedback through real-time results. Helps presenters adjust content accordingly.
Cons
- Free version has limitations like only 3 polls per event. Need paid plans for full features.
- Can be confusing initially to figure out presenter vs audience views.
- Limitations around integrating with Mac PowerPoint and lack of native iOS app.
- Steep learning curve for some advanced customization features.
- Delay between activating polls/questions and results showing up. Can cause confusion.
Pricing
$42.00 per user/month
- Free version
- No Seat Minimum
Poll Everywhere is a real-time audience engagement software that makes it easy to host interactive meetings, training, or classes. Thanks to its many features, users can ask unlimited questions in formats such as quizzes, Q&A, AMAs, online polling, and word clouds. In addition, Poll Everywhere also comes equipped with icebreakers and other types of activities that get participants talking. It is the perfect software for turning one-way monologues into robust dialogues.
Why Poll Everywhere?
- Users can create unlimited questions on the free plan.
- It comes with dedicated customer support and an FAQ section.
- It also supports user anonymity.
Why Not Poll Everywhere?
- Some design limitations can make the user experience a bit tedious
Comments from Real Users:
Pros
- Easy to use and set up for both presenters and audience members.
- Allows for real-time feedback and responses from audience.
- Variety of interactive question types to engage audience.
- Ability to integrate with presentation software like PowerPoint.
- Provides anonymous feedback from audience members.
Cons
- Limited features and number of responses with free version.
- Can be difficult to customize design and branding.
- Some limitations around editing and modifying existing polls/questions.
- Steep pricing for paid plans and upgrades.
- Issues with lagging and delays in displaying responses.
Pricing
$5.60 per user/month
- Free version
- Free trial available
- No Seat Minimum
Hypercontext wants to help you “lead a high-performing team without all the annoying admin work.” And their approach to doing this is to empower managers with a vast library of resources to help them conduct better 1:1 meetings, create shared team agendas, and collect feedback from team members — all in one place! With Hypercontext, teams can finally get enough time to focus on the work they truly enjoy.
Why Hypercontext?
- Hypercontext is available on both mobile phones and computers
- It has over 90+ meeting templates to choose from
- Experience seamless integration with the Google, Microsoft, Slack, and Apple ecosystems
- No credit card is required to sign up
Why Not Hypercontext?
- There’s a limit to the number of users on the basic and pro plans
Comments from Real Users:
Pros
- Makes meetings more efficient, focused, and productive by allowing collaborative agendas and tracking action items.
- Integrations with tools like Google Calendar, Slack, and Chrome make it easy to use.
- Provides helpful prompts and templates for better 1:1s and team meetings.
- Keeps a record of meeting notes, decisions, and next steps for reference later.
- Simple and intuitive interface encourages team adoption and engagement.
Cons
- Syncing issues where agenda items added don't show up right away in real time.
- Limitations around being able to export and share meeting notes externally.
- Not as feature rich compared to some other project management apps like Asana.
- Questions and prompts can get repetitive after using it for awhile.
- Some unintuitive parts of the UI make it hard to find certain functions.
Conclusion
Ask Me Anything sessions encourage employee participation, increase collaboration, and help gather feedback. These sessions are a structured approach to collecting and analyzing valuable information that improves team productivity and efficiency. More importantly, these meetings create a safe environment for employees to share their opinions freely. Therefore, companies should treat them with the highest importance. The right tools will help businesses unlock all the many benefits of Ask Me Anything sessions.
