What is a Standup Meeting?

Standups are a 15-minute time-boxed event to plan for the next 24 hours.

The three daily standup questions are:
1️⃣ What did you do yesterday?
2️⃣ What will you do today?
3️⃣ Anything blocking your progress?

In this blueprint, you'll find everything you need to know about standup meetings: when to have them, why they're helpful, and how long they should last.

❓What is the purpose of Daily Standup Meetings?

A standup meeting aims to keep everyone on the same page regarding which team member completed specific tasks. That way, your team stays aligned with their goals.

Through standups, teams can identify any roadblocks or areas of concern to work together to find solutions.


Time
15mins

🗓
Occurrence
Daily

🎯
Goal
Team alignment

💼
Owner
Team lead

Standups serve as a guide to knowing:

  • What still needs completion?
  • Based on yesterday’s results, do our plans change today?
  • The team gets a clear picture of if they’re on track to complete goals.
  • Teammates can help each other out by removing blockers/impediments. (Source)

Standup is not just an update engine. It's also your go-to for staying in sync with the team and getting help when you need it!

How to run Standup Meetings - A guide for small teams
How to run Standup Meetings - A guide for small teams

💣 8 Things to avoid during Standup Meetings

🚫 Don’t: Avoid raising Blockers/Impediments/Problems.

✅ Do: Communicate when you might need help.

Why?: To get the most value out of Standup and work as a team.


🚫 Don’t: Discuss things that do not involve the work of anyone else on the team or things that are only of interest to you and another team member.

✅ Do: Give your update and ask to stay on the call with the team member(s) that need to be involved in the conversation.

Example: “I’m having issues with ‘x'“/ I want to discuss the details on “y” would it be possible for us both to stay on the call.”

Why?: Your teammates might have time-sensitive work, and making them part of a discussion that doesn’t involve them will confuse, or worse, make them zone out and miss the following updates.


🚫 Don’t: Go on tangents

✅ Do: Keep your updates short and quick, aligned to essential details.

Why?: To maintain Standup aligned to its original purpose.


🚫 Don’t: Overextend chat while waiting for people to join.

✅ Do: Keep cooler chat short and down to two minutes before kickstarting the meeting.

Why?: To maintain Standup productive and aligned to its original purpose.


🚫 Don’t: Get distracted during your teammate's updates.

✅ Do: Listen to your team updates.

Why?: To avoid missing out on valuable information that could be useful for your work.


🚫 Don’t: Be loud if you join the meeting late.

✅ Do: Silently join and don’t disturb updates.

For example: You can say “HI😬” when it’s your turn to give updates or use chat.

Why?: To avoid distracting and interrupting others.


🚫 Don’t: Try to solve a problem on the spot.

✅ Do: Take the discussions afterward. Schedule a different meeting for that specific problem, discuss offline, or ask to stay on the call.

Why?: Standup is to raise problems, but not for teammates to find solutions to them during it.


🚫 Don’t: Overextend your time with a lengthy update

✅ Do: Two minutes per person should be good enough.

For example: If you worked on a cool thing you are proud of and want to share all the details you can save it for demo meetings.

Why?: To keep Standup short and productive while respecting your teammates time to give their update.


Most likely, your company works on different projects at once, to avoid the hassles of switching projects, Standup is recommended to run from one single board with multiple ongoing initiatives.

⏰ At what time is Standup held?

If your team is in the office, the right to run the meeting would be mornings when the team working on the projects is gathered, but if you are a remote team working with diverse time zones, it's best to find a time that works for all team members involved so your whole crew can join.

🪐 Where should you hold Standup?

For remote teams,  Standup meetings can be held on zoom or similar services; send an invite to your team's calendar; this way, you will avoid delays.

🧘‍♂️Offline Standup and Deep Focus Workday

You can also implement offline Standup; if your team works on multiple complex projects, giving them a full no-meeting day might improve their productivity,

At Jexo, we have "No meeting Wednesdays" for the team to have a Deep Focus Workday with no meetings involved. So on those days, Standup is held offline, and the team is requested to send offline updates through the company's slack channel.

Encourage your team to get the most out of it! 🧠

Tip: Be mindful and respectful of no meeting days; if you do need to have an urgent meeting with a team member, make sure to reach out in advance!

For Offline Updates, share a list with all the essential bullet points covering the three Standup questions:

1️⃣ What did you do yesterday?
2️⃣ What will you do today?
3️⃣ Anything blocking your progress?

✍🏽 Who wrote this blueprint?

This blueprint was written by Jenn Velazquez from Jexo. If you're interested in writing your own, message us at marketing@jexo.io!

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