How do you get honest, anonymous feedback from a team of 12?

Why a survey in a small team gets polite answers

With 200 staff an answer disappears in the crowd; with 12 it does not. People know the manager reading the results sat in the same meeting, knows who was unhappy about the roster, and can often tell who writes in long sentences. So they answer the way they would answer out loud: carefully.

The question a person in a small team asks is not "does the tool know my name" but "could my manager work it out". Clearvoyance is built around the second question: nothing is stored that links an answer to the person who gave it, the organisation never sees an email address beside any activity, and no answer is shown until enough of the team has replied. The general case for teams of 10 to 200 is on clearvoyance.ai/anonymous-employee-feedback; this page is about what changes when the team is small.

What the threshold does for a team of 12

In a targeted campaign you choose the share of the list that must answer before anything unlocks: 50% at the least, up to 100%. For a team of 12 that is six people at the minimum, nine at 75%, all 12 at 100%. Until then you see only a count rising.

When the threshold is met, every transcript arrives at once with the AI report, not one by one as people reply. For a team of 12, consider 75% or higher: six answers is a thin set to read, and a higher bar tells the team you want everyone, not a vocal few.

If your team is smaller than ten

A targeted campaign needs a list of at least 10 email addresses. A team of six, eight or nine cannot run one. The alternative is an open-link campaign with a cap of 10: one link you share in the team chat, results unlock once five people have answered, and the link closes itself at 10 answers. It costs $4.99. One answer per device is allowed; nothing from that check is stored linkable to an answer.

What to ask a team of 12: four open questions

• What is the one thing that slows you down most in a normal week?
• What do you think I get wrong about how this team actually works?
• What is something people say to each other here but would not say to me?
• If you could change one thing about how we run the week, what would it be?
• Four is enough. A rating scale with 12 answers tells you almost nothing an open question would not. Each is answered out loud or typed, in the person's own words.

How to introduce it so the team believes it

• Say the rule with the numbers in it: "Nothing unlocks until nine of the 12 of us have answered, and then I get everything at once." A rule people can check beats a promise.
• Tell them the invitation comes from clearvoyance.ai, not your inbox, and that the list of addresses is deleted once the invitations are queued unless you choose to save it.
• Say what is stored: a transcript of what they said or typed, linked to nobody. Recordings are transcribed and discarded, never stored.
• Run the free self-test first, with an invitation to your own inbox, and show the team both sides; a manager who has been the respondent explains it better.
• Do not ask anyone whether they have answered yet. The threshold exists so you never need to.

Reading the report when there are only 12 answers

The AI report gives you the themes, the sentiment, representative quotes and an executive summary. With 12 answers, read the transcripts first and the summary second.

Resist the urge to attribute. Answers are transcripts of what people said, or text they typed, and a sentence that "sounds like" someone is a guess, not a fact. Treat anything two people raise as a pattern. Export the transcripts as CSV within 30 days: answers and the report are deleted 30 days after the campaign closes.

When not to use it

• A team under five. Even an open link needs five answers before anything unlocks, and in a team of four everyone knows who the fifth would have to be.
• A review of one person. The few who work with them are the only ones who can answer, and that group is small enough to guess from. Ask about how the team works, not about a person.
• Anything that needs a follow-up with the individual. There is no way to reply to an answer or to find out who gave it, by design. If someone may disclose something you must act on with them, have a conversation instead.
• A team that does not work in English. Questions, transcription and the report are English only.

Pricing

A flat price per survey by the number of people you invite, charged once at launch. No subscription.

Questions