OpenDiscuss Free assessment

Ask everyone at once. See where they stand, and who moved.

Big meetings give one person the microphone at a time. OpenDiscuss gives it to everyone. People answer the same question in their own words, approve a one-line summary of what they said, and land on a map of where the whole group stands.

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The live discussion is open now. About three minutes a round.

An illustrated discussion in three rounds. Round one, what goes wrong in big meetings: the loudest voices dominate, no time for everyone to speak, quieter views never surface, hours spent with nothing decided. Round two, what people wish they looked like: everyone gets heard, every perspective on the table, fits the time we have, decisions come faster. Round three: every wish flows into OpenDiscuss.Round 1What goes wrong in big meetings?Round 2What do you wish they looked like?Round 3What would get you there?The loudest voices dominate14 people, 16 thoughtsNo time for everyone to speak13 people, 14 thoughtsQuieter views never surface11 people, 12 thoughtsHours spent, nothing decided9 people, 10 thoughtsEveryone gets heard16 people, 18 thoughtsEvery perspective on the table13 people, 14 thoughtsFits the time we have9 people, 10 thoughtsDecisions come faster9 people, 10 thoughtsOpenDiscuss48 people, 52 thoughts100% of thoughts in one space

Tap a space to follow it.

An illustration of our live discussion on big meetings. Add your answer to the real one

The town hall problem

People care. One room, one microphone and one hour just can't hold four hundred points of view.

The loudest voices dominate

The first three people to the microphone frame the whole conversation. Everyone after them reacts.

No time for everyone to speak

Two minutes each, forty people, and the meeting is over before most of them have spoken.

Quieter views never surface

The new hire, the night shift, the person who thinks it through first. Their view exists. It just doesn't get said.

Hours spent, nothing decided

Afterwards nobody can say what the group actually thinks, so the decision waits for another meeting, or gets made without buy-in.

1 of 13

Telling the Story

Who gets heard:
five hours in vs 30 minutes in

Atlanta City Hall 80 of 350 heard

OpenDiscuss 350 of 350 heard modelled

vs.
Sources
  • Atlanta times and counts: GPB live coverage, 2023-06-06
  • OpenDiscuss times (modelled): 5–10 minutes a round to answer, plus the read measured on the alpha, 2026-10-31. What the positions would have been is not shown; nobody can know that without asking them.

Inverting the People to Time Ratio: Traditional Meetings vs OpenDiscuss

Several real world examples across different industries

Amazon Web Services

300,000 people it concerned; attendance not published

Traditional meeting

People heard 10–30 est.
Time 40–60 min est.

vs.

OpenDiscuss

People heard 195k–240k est.
Time 11–25 min est.
Sources

City of Madison, Wisconsin

79 present

Traditional meeting

People heard 22–45 est.
Time 90 min

vs.

OpenDiscuss

People heard all 79
Time 17–38 min est.
Sources

Penn State

1,000+ who sent a question

Traditional meeting

People heard 15–30 est.
Time 60 min

vs.

OpenDiscuss

People heard all 1,000
Time 11–25 min est.
Sources

Each case on its own two scales: people against those present (or everyone it concerned, where attendance wasn’t published), time against the longer of the two. Light ends are the top of an estimate.

How it works

Participant time stays the same whether ten people answer or ten thousand. Each person spends a few minutes per round, and the host reads one map instead of a transcript.

Round one

Everyone answers at the same time.

The host asks one question. People speak or type from their phone, in their own words, as long as they need. Nobody waits for a turn, and nobody hears the others first.

Dana, spoken, 0:52"Our all-hands is really a broadcast. Leadership talks for fifty minutes, there's ten minutes of questions, and it's the same four people every time. I've stopped putting my hand up."
Marcus, typed"I'd speak if I knew it would change anything. Right now it feels like the decision's already made."
The points

One answer, several points. Each one counts on its own.

People rarely say just one thing. OpenDiscuss splits an answer into its points, and the person who said it approves, redrafts or removes each one. Nothing reaches the map without that tap. Every approved point joins the thought space it belongs to, so one answer can land in two places while the map still counts one person.

Dana, spoken, 0:38"Honestly, it's the same three people who talk at every all-hands. And even if I wanted to say something, there's ten minutes for questions and two hundred of us."

Your summary

2 of 2 approved
  1. 11 of 2 Approved

    The same few people do the talking at every all-hands.

    Joins The loudest voices dominate

  2. 22 of 2 Approved

    Ten minutes of questions can't fit two hundred people.

    Joins No time for everyone to speak

One person, two points, two thought spaces.

A poll tells you there's a problem. This tells you which one.

A pulse survey asks

"Are our all-hands meetings effective?"

41% yes, 59% no. Now what?

OpenDiscuss asks

"What goes wrong in our big meetings?"

The loudest voices dominate 14 people, 16 thoughtsNo time for everyone to speak 13 people, 14 thoughtsQuieter views never surface 11 people, 12 thoughtsHours spent, nothing decided 9 people, 10 thoughts

Four positions, in people's own words, sized by how many hold them. Two of them you could fix next week.

Who runs a discussion on OpenDiscuss

Anyone who has to hear a group bigger than a room. These examples are illustrations.

Internal comms. Head of people, 600 staff

What would make our all-hands worth showing up for?

Settled, 3 rounds4 spaces
Civic. City council, 1,200 residents

What should happen to the Elm Street car park?

Settled, 3 rounds5 spaces
Research. UX team, 120 customers

What almost made you cancel last quarter?

Settled, 2 rounds4 spaces

How much of your meeting actually gets heard?

Answer seven questions about your last big meeting. You'll get a score and a short report on where voices are getting lost, with one change you could make next time.

  • Two minutes, seven questions
  • Your score, findings and one change for next time, the moment you add your email
  • A copy in your inbox. One email, no sales call.
Start the free assessment

Questions people ask first

Does the AI put words in my mouth?

It writes a draft of each point you made. You approve it, redraft it or remove it. It never counts until you approve it, and nobody else can change it. Your original words are kept as you said them.

How many people can take part?

There's no queue, so the number doesn't change how long anyone spends. Each person answers in a few minutes per round, whether there are 30 participants or 3,000.

What do participants need?

A phone and the link. They sign in with an email link, with no password and no app to install, so the map can follow their thinking across rounds.

Can people see the results while a round is open?

No. Nobody sees how the group is split until they've answered, so the first people to answer don't shape everyone else's.

The next big meeting could hear everyone.

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