Changing how we do standups
This meeting needs a refactor.
Our team used to do the daily standup. Everyone talks about what they did yesterday, what they're doing today, and any blockers. Everyone tunes out except for their own status update. The product manager and the tech lead pay some attention. Maybe once in a week or two, something interesting is said. 🥱
During a retro in the midst of a busy time for our team, we surfaced that we had too many meetings. And we're not alone in this. It was just too much with the looming deadlines. Shopify went extreme on dropping meetings a few years back. The daily standup was one of many meetings we talked about, and everyone had the same feeling: this meeting needed a refactor.
We discussed what the actual intent of our daily standup was, and how we could preserve that while also reducing the pressure of meetings. Here's what we came up with:
Daily Standup Goals
The product manager needs to know the status of certain tasks beyond what Linear reports. Not all tasks, not every day, but it's important for them to have their finger on the pulse.
The tech lead also needs to get a sense for people spinning their wheels, working on things for longer than expected, and how projects are moving along.
People need help getting unblocked. A topic for another time is how long to try to unblock yourself before asking for help. But, our team is generally good at reaching out outside of meetings. However, sometimes we need a dedicated time and place to make sure a block is in front of everyone.
We're a fully remote team. We need face time. We need to bond and build / maintain team culture. But we don't want more meetings.
Our Team's Solution
Daily SlackBot async standup. A bot sends a message to our team handle in slack, and we respond with Yesterday, Today, and Blockers. Sometimes it's just a status update, sometimes it's a funny quip about our kids being blockers. Conversation sometimes ensues. Other times, it doesn't. And that's perfect.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we have a 15 minute team sync. This is meant to be a chat about what we're working on that's interesting. Blockers that we want to dive deep on or just vent. And sometimes it's just a coffee chat, and we talk about plans for the weekend or some cool new toy.
This dropped a mere 30 minutes of meetings from the week, but we don't dread the remaining 45 minutes anymore. The time is useful for everyone.
All our goals are met, we have fewer standup meetings, and the meetings we do have show much higher engagement and enjoyment. Win win win!
What do you think? Do you find the daily stand up useful? Who is it for in your team? How do you build and reinforce culture on your remote team?
