Hi All - I'm Co-Founder and CTO of Baloonr. Excited to share more about Baloonr with you.
As Amanda mentioned, our app was built from the ground-up on data and research, focused on how to remove bias and get the most and best information and feedback out of a group. We sit at the intersection of surveying + collaboration + diversity/inclusion.
We have a simple and flexible flow that allows Baloonr to be used for a wide range of uses cases, inside and outside of organizations, and across diverse industries. Here's how it works:
1. You start a Baloonr, which is a question, prompt, or topic
2. Your invited group goes through an anonymous, bias-free, collaborative process where they launch "baloons," collaborate and build on them, and then vote for those that they support
3. The group is presented with a prioritized list of top information and insights
(All content on Baloonr is anonymous, although claimable and trackable.)
Excited to see what you think!
@noahbornstein this looks great, love the prioritization list that's presented while anonymized. One of the things often missing in our Slack is having discussions that aren't easy to measure feedback and consensus on, and definitely aren't anonymized.
What types of teams do you see benefiting the most from this kind of participation within Slack?
@jakirk42 - Thanks! Exactly - No way to put a question out there and gather information/feedback from a large group, knowing that you have consensus and really understand where people are and what they are thinking.
We think that all types of teams would benefit from this kind of participation on Slack. At least on the Slack teams that I'm a part of, the discussions can go on for a while without everyone chiming in and oftentimes, there is no consensus or clear outcome. Baloonr allows you to gather a large amount of information from diverse groups and get it down to a prioritized list. Because of anonymity and several other components that remove bias, you know that people are engaged and able to participate. From project work to product development to discussions re: organizational issues, we see this flow as valuable across the board.
You tell the BaloonrBot that you want to start a Baloonr, and they guide you through the rest, ensuring that your team is engaged and you get the information you need.
@noahbornstein Really looking forward to diving in. The great thing with #slack is the instant communication no matter where the team is located. The drawback is the firehose of noise which makes getting consensus and questions answered more difficult. If the new goal of email is Inbox Zero, and the goal of Slack is replacing email, then I'm very excited to see if Baloonr can help keep Slack from becoming overwhelming when it comes to time getting answers!
@amanda_greenberg Congrats on your launch. Definitely see a need for this if it can cut through organization politics to accelerate innovation and foster inclusivity. I'm curious about the underlying principles. Does it rely on any behavioral/social/organizational psychology research?
@paul_shustak Thanks! Awesome question! Yes, we developed Baloonr based on research and data from various areas. Before founding Baloonr, I was a public health researcher in DC, and my work focused on translating science and research into programs that resulted in behavior change. When Noah and I realized that there was a huge problem, the first thing we did was dig into the research about how you get the best, most, and most diverse information, feedback, content, ideas, etc. from a group of people. We found that a lot of current products or processes are built on intuition vs. what is actually necessary to gather information, feedback, and ideas - which has to do a lot with timing and bias and psychological safety. Baloonr removes evaluation apprehension, production blocking, social anxiety, social loafing/free riding, groupthink, and a number of other things that negatively impact productivity and outcomes. We'll be releasing a series of blog posts soon that shares more about the science behind the Baloonr remedy - will be sure to post it here. Thanks for checking us out, Paul!
@paul_shustak Absolutely! Completely agree. I'll make sure to share the blog post(s).
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This is a beautiful, well designed tool with a clear problem statement.
Some comments:
1. It is not entirely clear that I need to add team members to my group before I can send them a baloonr. I noticed only after I was on the second stage of creating my Baloonr.
2. I understand that anonymity is an essential part of the solution. However, it could lead to harassment/abusive behavior. Are there any structures in place to tackle it?
Cool product, guys. Love that it tries to remove gender/age/race biases that inadvertently occur during discussions.
@ashwini_sriram Thank you for your kind comments! Really appreciate it, and thank you for checking out Baloonr.
1. Thank you for this feedback. Definitely want that to be more clear! We'll take a look at this flow and do some tweaking.
2. Yes! Everyone has to sign-in with their email address and enter their name, meaning that everything is trackable if someone goes against their company's code of conduct (captured in our terms). When we were first building Baloonr, we talked with several heads of human resources because we knew that we were bringing anonymity into the workplace - they felt that as long as people were logged in with their organization email address and knew that they had to comply with company's code of conduct, then this wouldn't be an issue. And, it hasn't been. Everything is also centered around a baloonr - a centralized question, so questions/topics don't remain open forever, are focused, and aren't just quickly chatted to each other. We also have removable anonymity in the final stage, with everyone able to claim their baloons - this incentivizes substantive information/feedback. But, to keep it that way, we are building out a report/off-topic button that will temporarily remove a baloon and the baloonr creator acts as a moderator and decides if it should be placed back up there.
Thank you again! Excited to have you on Baloonr.
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I love this team and their 'ballooning of team ideas'. Some of the nicest and most hardworking peeps. #parententrepreneur #cutebaby #greatideasfloattotop
@nikhil_paul I don't know if it's the 36 hours of no sleep or the onions being cut right next to me, but there is something suddenly in my eyes. #thankyou
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I have been an advisor of this amazing team for over a year. They are solving a huge problem in a way that resonates with people and customers. Focused on outcomes and making teams more productive and engaged. Just the beginning for them and look forward to watching them take-off.
@rkrauss350 Been there from the very, very, very, very beginning. A voice of reason, logic, and cool. #thankyou
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I am a Senior Technical Evangelist at Microsoft and an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and DePaul University. I have used Baloonr in each of these settings.
- At Microsoft, we’ve used Baloonr to quickly brainstorm possible solutions to an issue we were facing. In an afternoon, Baloonr was live, and we were using it. We quickly sourced ideas from the team, and Baloonr allowed us to see the ranked results based on the “wisdom of the team” (the ideas they through were the best solution).
- At the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) we used Baloonr to replace our completely manual process for allowing the students to suggest projects for a project based course I co-teach. We literally had 100% student participation (that is a first). We had far more ideas, far better ideas and at the end of the process the faculty knew the projects that the students were most excited about via Baloonr’s reporting capabilities. Students were able to do the projects they wanted to do and felt far more engaged in suggesting and selecting their projects.
- At DePaul University, we used Baloonr as an open-ended and student driven feedback mechanism. Yes, we had the standard rigid course survey, but Baloonr allowed the students to brainstorm how to make the class better. The course had both online, and in-class students, and with Balnoor both groups felt equally and fully engaged. Well over 120 substantive ideas were brought forward and since Baloonr allowed the students to rank them, I knew exactly which ideas were the highest importance to begin working on immediately.
Hi, I'm Raunaq - one of the developers working on Baloonr and leading development on our Slack integration + bot, BaloonrBot. The integration allows you to "Sign In With Slack" and ensures that your entire Slack team is available to participate in the baloonrs (questions/prompts) that you create. BaloonrBot also provides your team with results, notifications, and the ability to start baloonrs, all without having to leave Slack. So you can anonymously (if you want) ask your team questions and get a prioritized top 5 list of information and feedback back (with very high engagement, so you are truly leveraging the wisdom of the crowd).
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