How to Use Google Forms to Get Updates From Your Remote Team
Start a New Form
Google Forms offers a nice selection of templates that can help you get started. Click the Template gallery at the top to review templates for Work, Personal, and Education. If you see one that has the basics you need, such as the question types, click it to use it.
If not, you can start from scratch by clicking the Blank option under Start a new form. This is what we’ll be using for this tutorial.
The first thing you should do when you create a new form is to name it. Since Google Forms saves your work as you go, you’ll always know which is the correct form if you name it upfront. Optionally, you can also add a description.
If you enter the name on the form itself, that name will pop into the spot on the top left by default. But you can change that name as well as select a location for it within Google Drive if you like.
Add Your Form Questions
Google Forms gives you several question types that should cover any situation. From short answers and paragraphs to multiple-choice, checkboxes, and dropdowns, you have all the flexibility you want.
Basic Details
The most sensible questions to begin a team update form with are name, date, and optionally time. Whether you use a template or the blank form, you’ll have a question already there to get you started. So you can simply change that question type if necessary and then click the plus sign to add more questions.
For your team member’s name, select a Short answer as the question type. Then add the name of the question and turn on the toggle for Required.
For the date your team member is completing the form, click the plus sign to add a question, and pick Date in the dropdown box for the question type. Then add the question name, such as Date, and make the question required.
Multiple Choice or Dropdown for Department or Area
If you are sending the update form to many people, you may want to add questions for things like department or area. Multiple choice and dropdown question types work perfectly for these types of questions. Plus, you can have the responder move automatically to other questions based on their answers.
For department or area, you can use the Multiple choice question type if there are only a few answers to pick from and the Dropdown type to conserve some space if there are many possible answers. Choose your question type and then add each answer. We’ll use Multiple choice.
Now, depending on the answer the responder picks, we want to move them to a certain section with specific questions. This is a very handy feature in Google Forms because you can eliminate the need for the responders to skip questions that don’t apply to them and go directly to the ones that do.
Use Separate Sections for Each Department or Area
To create a section, click the bottom button in the floating toolbar for the Add section. You’ll see the section appear and can give it its own name and description. In this how-to, we’re going to create a section for those who select Information Technology for their department.
We’ll add a question for the current project(s). This allows us to see which projects the responder is currently working on and checkboxes allow them to pick more than one. So, you can pick Checkboxes for the type, or you can take this question a step further.
Maybe for each project they select, you want to know their progress for it. This is where the Checkbox grid type is ideal. You can enter each phase in the Rows section and each project in the Columns section (or vice versa).
Check Your Responses
Viewing the responses from your form couldn’t be easier. Just open your form on Google Forms and hit the Responses tab at the top. You’ll see a summary, can view responses by question, or look at individual answers.
Google Forms gives you text responses as well as colorful graphs and charts for your forms. And you can export the responses for offline viewing.
