Manager Review Versus an Open Vote

Two different jobs

An open vote and a manager review answer different questions. A vote asks who has seen an idea and is willing to mark it. A review asks what happens next, who owns that, and what the person who submitted it is told.

Plenty of idea tools include a vote. Pages already on this site describe it for the old Microsoft Teams Employee Ideas app, Sideways 6, IdeaScale, and Crowdicity / Medallia Ideas. Harmoni does not use a public vote as the decision. The path on the features page is a manager review.

What an open vote is good at

• Showing an idea was seen. A count is evidence that colleagues opened it, which a closed inbox does not give you.
• A campaign. When you ask one question for a fixed period, a vote can show which replies the room noticed.
• A prompt, not a verdict. A high count can tell a manager which ideas to read first. It should not be the only reason an idea proceeds.

Where an open vote stops

• Popular is not the same as worth doing. A small fix that saves money on one line can lose to an idea that is easy to like.
• Quiet ideas lose. Process, safety and management suggestions are often the ones people will not attach a public score to. The features page submits ideas privately for that reason.
• Nobody owns the next step. A vote does not approve, ask for a revision, or shelve. It does not name who implements the idea.
• The count can sit there. Without a status, a well-liked idea looks active while nothing is happening. People stop submitting when the last idea vanished.

None of that needs a new industry. It is the same failure mode whether the ideas are about a product, a shift, or the way a team works.

The workflow already on the features page

Harmoni publishes five steps. This guide does not add a sixth, and it does not add a vote.

1. Submit. Employees share an insight or a suggestion. An AI assistant can turn a rough note into a clearer proposal. The idea is submitted privately, so the review is not a popularity contest.
2. Manager review. The manager reads it, sends feedback, and approves, asks for a revision, or shelves it. The submitter can see what happened.
3. Decision. What goes forward is prioritised, with status tracking. The features page also describes scoring and review criteria as aids. They do not replace the person who decides.
4. Implementation tracking. An approved idea becomes work you can follow. The point of the step is progress, not another score.
5. Points and badges. Contributors are recognised, including on a leaderboard. Recognition comes after the decision. It is not the poll that made it.

How to choose

Use an open vote when you want to know what colleagues noticed, and you already have someone who will still make the decision and track the work. Treat the count as an input.

Use manager review when the thing you are missing is a reply, a recorded outcome, and a trail into implementation. That is the product on the features page. If a buying conversation needs community voting as the decision itself, Harmoni is the wrong fit, and it is better to say that than to imply a vote that is not there.

What to measure

• Time to a reply. Days from submission to the first manager response.
• A recorded outcome. Approved, sent back for revision, or shelved. Not "still open" with no owner.
• Ideas in implementation. Approved ideas that have progress recorded, not only a decision.
• Recognition that matches the work. Points and badges for contributions that were reviewed, not for winning a poll.

Price, if you want this path in software

A form and a named manager can run this without software. Software is for the queue, the status, and the record of what was implemented. Harmoni's price is a flat monthly band for the whole organisation. Every employee is included. There is no per-seat charge.

Harmoni prices as listed on this site in October 2026. Flat monthly bands by organisation size. No per-seat charges.

The same numbers are on the pricing page.