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A new pulse is a draft. Nothing goes to participants until you launch it. At launch, you choose the participants, the anonymity setting, and whether to send now or on a schedule. Only pulse owners can launch a pulse. Before you launch, you can send yourself a test. See Test a pulse.

Start the launch

1

Open the Launch tab

Open the pulse from Pulse surveys. A draft pulse opens on the Launch tab.
2

Select Launch Pulse

Select Launch Pulse. The launch wizard opens.
The wizard walks you through each choice and ends with a review. The steps depend on whether you send now or schedule for later.

Choose when to send

On the first step, Choose when to send, select one option:
  • Send now: Launch immediately and start collecting responses. On the next step, Set deadline, choose how long participants have to respond. The default is 3 days, and an expiration is required. See Expiration and deadlines.
  • Schedule for later: Set up a schedule so the pulse runs automatically. Choose a Schedule type: Recurring schedule, Calendar event schedule, One-time schedule, or New hire anniversary. Then, on Configure schedule, set the dates, times, time zone, and expiration. See Schedule types.

Choose participants

On Choose participants, select who receives the pulse, such as your team, specific people, or a group. You must select at least one person. See Choose participants.
For a New hire anniversary schedule, you choose participants inside the Configure schedule step instead of on a separate step.

Configure participant settings

On Configure participant settings, choose:
  • Anonymity: Named or Anonymous. Anonymous needs at least 3 participants. You cannot change anonymity after launch, so set it here. See Named and anonymous pulses.
  • Visibility: Who can see responses — Private to owners, Visible to managers, or Visible to all participants. You can change visibility later. See Response sharing.
Depending on your workspace, you may also set how participants are notified (Sent via), how they respond (Respond via), and who the pulse comes from (the requester).

Configure owner settings

On Configure owner settings, turn Receive updates on or off. When it is on, Windy sends the pulse creator a Slack message with updates while the pulse runs. See Notifications.

Confirm and send

On Confirm, review the summary: when the pulse sends, the deadline, the participants, the participant settings (including anonymity), and the owner settings. Then select Send now or Schedule to launch.

What participants receive

When a run starts, Windy sends each participant a direct message in Slack. The pulse also appears in their to-dos in Windmill, where they can open the web form. Windmill does not send pulse invitations by email. Email is used only for result reports after a run. Learn more about responding to a pulse.

After launch

The pulse page changes to show results. The tabs are Responses, Insights, Questions, Runs, Participants, and Settings. To run the pulse again, pause it, or change it, see Manage a pulse.