Back in 2019, I was stuck trying to get clear answers from a big group for a project.
I kept sending out long emails and getting messy replies. Then I tried a simple trick: I started every request with 'Please answer with a number from 1 to 5 and one sentence.' It cut the noise down by about 70% and we finished the Denver project on time. Has anyone else found a good way to get short, useful answers from a crowd?
My team lead does this thing where she asks for "bullet points only, no fluff" in the subject line. It feels a little blunt but honestly, it works. People just send the three key facts you actually need. I mean, it saves everyone time having to write and read those long emails.