An Exit Ticket is a short written response that participants complete before they leave. Instead of asking everyone to give feedback out loud, you invite them to answer one or two focused questions on a card, sticky note or online form. It takes a few minutes, and it gives you honest, useful information from everyone in the room, not just the confident speakers.
Exit tickets come from the classroom, where teachers use them to check what students have understood, but they work just as well in training, with large groups and in any workshop where you need feedback. They’re particularly useful when people may not feel comfortable speaking in front of the group. For a more visual approach to feedback, see Evaluation Valerie or the Evaluation Target.
Method
Choose one or two questions, hand out the tickets before the end of the session, allow a few minutes to write, then collect them as people leave. Afterwards, read every response and decide what you will do with what you have learned.
Step 1: Choose your questions
Pick one or two short questions linked to what you want to know, for example ‘What’s the most useful thing you learned today?’, ‘What’s still unclear?’ or ‘What could we improve about this workshop?’. Avoid collecting feedback you’re unlikely to use.
Step 2: Prepare the tickets
Write or print the questions on small cards, or set up a short online form. Decide whether responses will be anonymous, and tell people before they start writing.
Step 3: Give time to write
Hand out the tickets with five minutes to go, not as people are putting their coats on. Give them two or three minutes of quiet to write. A short answer is fine: one honest sentence is more useful than a paragraph written in a hurry.
Step 4: Collect them at the door
Ask people to hand in their ticket as they leave, drop it in a box or envelope, or stick it on a board by the door. Thank everyone for their honesty.
Step 5: Read and respond
Read every ticket soon after the session and look for patterns. If several people say the same topic is still unclear, cover it in your follow-up or at the start of the next session. If someone raises an important issue, decide how you’ll respond, and let the group know what you’ve changed.
Outcome
A set of written responses from every participant, captured while the session is still fresh. You learn what landed, what didn’t and what to change, and quieter participants get the same say as everyone else. Over a series of sessions, exit tickets also show you whether your changes are working.
Tips for Facilitators
- Keep it short: two questions is plenty. The more you ask, the less thought goes into each answer.
- Ask about one thing: ‘What’s still unclear?’ gets more useful answers than ‘Any comments?’.
- Offer anonymity when it matters: people are more honest when their name isn’t attached, especially if a manager is in the room.
- Close the loop: tell people what you heard and what you’ll do about it. If feedback never leads to change, people stop giving it.
- Answer the questions: if tickets raise questions you can answer, add them to your follow-up email. During a longer event, add them to The Parking Lot and come back to them.
Variations
- Rating plus comment: add a quick 1 to 5 scale for how useful the session was alongside one open question, or use a visual scale such as The Evaluation Thermometer.
- Entry and exit tickets: ask the same question at the start and the end, such as ‘How confident do you feel about running a workshop?’, to see how much has changed.
- Mid-point ticket: on a long course, use a ticket at lunchtime so you can adjust the afternoon.
- Reflection ticket: combine feedback with reflection by using the prompts from the 3-2-1 Reflection.
Accessibility and Online Sessions
Use cards with plenty of space, print the questions in a clear, large font and read them aloud. Offer different ways to respond: writing, drawing, a quick word with you or a co-facilitator, or an online form people can complete on their phones, which also helps anyone who uses a screen reader or finds handwriting difficult. Allow enough time so nobody feels rushed.
Online, put a short form or poll in the chat and give people time to complete it before you close the call, rather than sending a survey afterwards that few people fill in. Most online form tools can collect responses anonymously. Share a summary of the answers at your next session.
