TeamRallyHow to Collect T-Shirt Sizes for 100 Employees in Slack
How to collect t-shirt sizes for employees in Slack — why the emoji-react thread fails, the structured collection pattern, and the ordering math.
How do you collect t-shirt sizes for 100 employees in Slack? Not with a thread. The “drop your size below 🧵” message tops out around 60% response after three reminders, and turning 80 scattered replies into a vendor order sheet is an evening of copy-paste.
Why the thread fails
Threads have no structure (people answer “M” without specifying cut), no tracking (who hasn’t answered requires manual diffing against the roster), and no persistence (next year, you do it all again). Emoji-react voting is worse — it caps your options and double-counts the enthusiastic.
The pattern that works
1. Structured collection. A short form or a bot prompt with exactly three fields: cut, size, quantity. Link a size chart — “M” varies by brand more than people expect.
2. DM the stragglers, by name. Channel reminders reach the people who already answered. A personal “hey, need your size by Friday” gets the rest.
3. Order with a buffer. Roll responses into counts per cut/size and add 10% in your two most common sizes. New joiners, mistakes, and the person who “definitely said L” will absorb it.
4. Keep the data. Sizes barely change. Store them and next year’s collection becomes a one-tap confirmation instead of a campaign.
The 100-person math
At 100 people, expect: ~70% response to a well-run ask in week one, ~90% after named DMs, and 3–5 holdouts you’ll decide for (order their size up). Budget a week, with the order deadline a hard backstop.
The automated version
This is a category of task — recurring, structured, low-stakes-but-annoying — that’s exactly what bots are for. TeamRally runs the whole loop in Slack: prompts each person individually, tracks responses against the roster, chases non-responders automatically, and stores sizes in the Preference Vault so you never run the campaign twice. The same loop handles dietary preferences and any custom preference you define.
Part of the HR event logistics guide.
Collect sizes once, reuse forever. TeamRally automates preference collection in Slack and Basecamp — join the waitlist.