Have you ever tried to coordinate a meeting with a bunch of people from different organizations?
Without the advantage of a shared calendar, this quickly devolves into a flurry of email about individual availability and preferences. Digging into all the “reply all” messages to interpret the conversation is confusing for the meeting organizer and also for the participants.
Doodle to the rescue
Thankfully, there’s a little website out there that solves this. Doodle.com is super simple to use, and that’s why it works so well.
The organizer types in a bit of info about the meeting and a selection of possible times to meet. A link is generated for the participants, who simply type in their name and check off their availability.
Here’s an example of a meeting I helped organize with Doodle – there are seven of us from different organizations trying to contemplate 9 possible meeting times. Imaging trying to do that over email?
(click to enlarge)
Using doodle.com, we quickly determined the one option that worked for everyone.
Low friction
Part of why this little utility works so well is that it’s basically frictionless. If you’ve never seen or used the site before, it’s obvious how to work it – no instructions required. Also, there are no usernames or logins – you just use it.
Ease of use and real utility. That’s a nice little app. Check it out.
