Glossary
What is live Q&A?
Live Q&A is a session where an audience asks questions in real time and a host or panel answers them on the spot.
In more detail
You see live Q&A at the end of conference talks, in webinars, at company town halls and in community calls. It is the part people remember, because it is the part that was about their problem.
It also fails in familiar ways. Questions pile up in a chat box and scroll away. The loudest or fastest person gets the microphone. The best questions arrive just as time runs out. And when the call ends, the answers leave with it, because nobody wrote them down.
Good live Q&A fixes each of those. Questions are collected before the session and ranked. A moderator, not the speaker, runs the queue. Questions that did not get answered live are answered in writing afterwards. And the whole thing stays attached to a thread people can find later.
Example
Town hall: Q3 roadmapPoll: Which topic should we take next?
Pricing changes 48% · Mobile app 35% · Integrations 17%
Good practice
Small habits that make the difference.
Split the host and the moderator
The speaker should answer. Someone else should pick the next question, watch the clock and keep order.
Seed the first questions
Start with two or three collected in advance. Nobody wants to go first in a silent room.
Mix raised hands and written questions
Some people think better out loud, others in writing. Take both.
Answer the leftovers in writing
Post answers to the questions you ran out of time for within two days, in the same thread.
How Dium handles it
In Dium, any session Wave can go live with a meeting link (Google Meet or Zoom), RSVPs, raised hands, polls, breakouts and co-hosts. The session's chat and questions stay attached to the Wave afterwards.
Related terms
AMA (ask me anything)
An AMA (ask me anything) is a time-boxed event where one guest answers open questions from a community, usually in writing.
Read definitionOffice hours
Office hours are a recurring, open time slot when an expert is available to answer whatever people bring to them.
Read definitionModeration ladder
A moderation ladder is a set of steps, from a light nudge to a ban, that moderators climb only as far as a problem needs.
Read definition