Baloonr

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!

I love this team and their 'ballooning of team ideas'. Some of the nicest and most hardworking peeps. #parententrepreneur #cutebaby #greatideasfloattotop

Thanks for hunting us, @gillianim! Hey everyone! Amanda here. Co-Founder & CEO of Baloonr. My co-founder, Noah and I founded Baloonr because of a common obstruction we experienced at every job, in every classroom, and on every team. A lot of variables impact when and how people share information, feedback, and ideas when working in a group. People opt-out of participating because they are concerned about what others will think or if there are unfamiliar or more senior group members present in the discussion. Oftentimes, it is a matter of logistics and timing - everyone can’t be talking, sharing, or processing at the same time, or a team might be located all over the globe in different time zones and unable to overcome the cultural and logistical barriers that plague the discussions. Concerns about not receiving credit for your contributions also causes people to hold-back and contribute less in a group setting. When people don’t and can’t contribute, everyone is operating at a loss. We built Baloonr from the ground-up to help groups eliminate dynamics and overcome logistical challenges, making it possible to collect necessary and accurate info. Excited to come out of beta and launch self-service, a Slack integration/bot (BaloonrBot), and iOS app. Look forward to receiving any feedback and here to answer questions! We'll share more throughout the day. Thanks for checking us out - free for teams <10 and 14-day free trial for bigger groups!

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).

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.

@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?

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.