How to answer a check-in in Dailybot

Answering a check-in is the simplest part of the process. When it’s your turn, Dailybot reaches out and walks you through a few questions. You answer them, and your responses show up in the team feed. The whole thing usually takes less than two minutes.

There are two ways to answer: directly in your chat platform or through the Dailybot web dashboard. Both submit your answers to the same place, so your team sees the same results regardless of which method you choose.

Answering from chat

This is the most common way to complete a check-in. At the scheduled time, Dailybot sends you a direct message in whatever chat platform your team uses, whether that’s Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, or Discord.

The message includes a prompt asking if you’re ready to start. Click “Yes, I’m ready” and Dailybot begins asking your questions one at a time. You reply to each question right in the conversation, and Dailybot moves on to the next one. The experience feels like chatting with a teammate rather than filling out a form.

If you miss the scheduled prompt or want to complete a check-in early, you can start one on demand. Just type “checkins” in your Dailybot direct message. Dailybot will show you a list of all check-ins assigned to you, and you can pick whichever one you want to complete. This is handy when you know you’ll be offline during the regular check-in window and want to answer ahead of time.

Answering from the web

If you prefer a form-based experience, the Dailybot web dashboard has you covered. Navigate to the Check-ins section in the sidebar, select the check-in you want to complete, and click the “Fill out report” button. This opens a form where you can see all the questions at once and type your responses at your own pace.

The web interface is especially useful when you want to write longer, more detailed answers. You can see the full context of every question before you start, draft your responses, and review them before submitting. For weekly planning check-ins or retrospectives where answers tend to be more thoughtful, the web option often feels more natural.

Tips for giving useful answers

The value of a check-in depends entirely on the quality of the answers. A response like “worked on stuff” doesn’t help your team. A response like “Finished the API integration for the billing module, waiting on code review from Sarah” gives your manager and teammates exactly what they need.

Be specific about what you accomplished. Mention the project, the task, and the outcome. If something is in progress, share where you are and what’s left. This level of detail takes an extra thirty seconds to write but saves everyone the follow-up questions later.

When you report a blocker, include enough context for someone to help. Instead of “I’m blocked,” try “I’m blocked on the deployment pipeline. The staging environment has been down since yesterday and I’ve pinged DevOps but haven’t heard back.” This gives your manager a clear signal and enough information to act.

Keep your answers honest. If you had a slow day, say so. If you’re stuck, say so. Check-ins work best when the team treats them as a genuine communication tool rather than a performance scorecard.

What happens after you answer

Once you submit your responses, Dailybot groups them with your name and avatar and publishes them to the team summary feed. If the check-in is configured to share in a channel, your answers appear there too. Your manager and teammates can read through everyone’s updates in a few minutes, right from the dashboard or the shared channel.

If the check-in includes conditional logic, some of your answers might trigger follow-up questions or notifications. For example, reporting a blocker might send an alert to your manager’s channel or prompt an additional question asking for details. This all happens automatically based on the rules your admin configured.

Dailybot makes answering check-ins so quick and frictionless that it becomes part of your daily routine without getting in the way. Pick the method that fits your workflow, spend two minutes on your answers, and get on with your day.