OpenSlot · Guides

An alternative to FindTime scheduling polls: skip the vote, send the times

Microsoft's scheduling polls (formerly FindTime) ask every attendee to vote on proposed times, then book the winner. Polls make sense for large groups with no calendar visibility — but for everyday scheduling they add a full round-trip: propose, wait for votes, chase the person who didn't vote, book.

When a poll is overkill

If the people whose time matters are in your organization, you don't need to ask them when they're free — their calendars already say. The only person whose preference is unknown is the external party. So the faster pattern is: intersect the internal calendars automatically, send the external person the resulting list, and let them reply with one line.

The list-first workflow

All times in US/Eastern
• Today 07/08
  03:30 PM - 04:00 PM
  05:00 PM - 05:30 PM
• Thursday 07/09
  09:30 AM - 10:30 AM
  12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
  02:30 PM - 03:00 PM

OpenSlot generates that list from live Outlook free/busy for any set of colleagues, in any timezone, up to 60 days out. One email, one reply, booked. No poll links, no voting UI for your client to figure out, no waiting on quorum.

Polls still win for genuinely democratic decisions — a 15-person team offsite where preference matters more than availability. For the other 95% of meetings, sending the times is simply fewer steps.