This or that questions for work

When to use these

Use a handful of these in the first two minutes of a meeting, especially a packed one. Read three or four in a row, have everyone answer by show of hands or in chat, and watch the room split. The speed is the feature: a this-or-that round wraps before the agenda clock starts, and the team has already done something together. Run them as a live poll if the meeting is large enough that hands don't scale.

The questions

1. Email or Slack?
2. Camera on or camera off?
3. Morning meeting or afternoon meeting?
4. Spreadsheet or document?
5. Dark mode or light mode?
6. Tabs or windows?
7. Hot drink or cold drink at your desk?
8. Plan first or dive in?
9. Standing desk or sitting desk?
10. Notifications on or notifications off?
11. Inbox zero or inbox chaos?
12. Headphones or speakers?
13. Detailed agenda or loose agenda?
14. Reply right away or batch your replies?
15. Whiteboard or doc for working through a problem?
16. Solo focus time or pairing?
17. To-do list or calendar blocks?
18. Quick call or long thread?
19. Type your notes or write them by hand?
20. Big launch or quiet rollout?
21. Office snacks: sweet or savory?
22. Coffee or tea?
23. Early bird or last-minute on deadlines?
24. Mute by default or unmuted by default?
25. Read the docs or ask a teammate?
26. One big monitor or two screens?
27. Walk-and-talk meeting or sit-down meeting?
28. Keyboard shortcuts or the mouse?
29. Plan the week on Friday or on Monday?
30. Lunch at your desk or away from it?

Questions we'd skip

Skip anything that needs an explanation to answer; the moment a this-or-that question makes people pause and qualify, it's the wrong format and you should have used would-you-rather instead. Skip splits that map onto real identity categories or lifestyle markers; a warmup that accidentally sorts the room by something personal does the opposite of what you want. Skip questions where one answer is obviously the socially correct one — if everyone picks the same side every time, there's no warmth in it, just compliance. Keep the stakes near zero; the point is speed and a low-effort shared moment, not insight.

Games that pair well with these

Common questions

What's the difference between this and would-you-rather?

This-or-that questions have a near-instant answer and no real tradeoff; would-you-rather questions are built to provoke a short debate. Use this-or-that when you have two minutes and want speed, would-you-rather when you have five and want a little discussion.

How many should I run at once?

Three to five in quick succession. A single this-or-that is too thin to register as a warmup; a rapid run of four or five builds a small rhythm and gives the room a few chances to land on the same side or split. Stop before it starts to drag.

Does this work for a large meeting?

Yes, better than most formats. Run it as a live poll and show the split on screen. This or That is built for exactly this: everyone picks a side at once, the chart updates live, and it scales past 50 without slowing down.

Meetings these questions suit