Stop daily meetings

A typical daily standup at a tech company usually follows this pattern: everyone greets each other, engages in a few minutes of small talk about their personal lives, and then each team member takes their turn to share their current status. This typically includes what they’ve accomplished since the last daily meeting, their plans moving forward, and any blockers they’re facing. The updates can be as brief as “working on issue TE-49231.” But what do the others do while someone is talking? Depending on their interest in the topic and their involvement in the project, their engagement can range from “listening attentively and contributing insightful comments or questions” to “scrolling through page 3 of Hacker News to see if anything new has popped up.”

In another context, it’s not uncommon for software engineers to get stuck on a solo project without a proper peer to consult. This often leads to frustration, especially when things get tough, and the project starts falling behind schedule. Many engineers have a strong desire to handle the workload themselves, taking pride in their ability to complete the project independently, even if it means working late hours and enduring significant stress.

So why does this happen, even when there are daily meetings with a (hopefully pleasant and supportive) team? Because when a meeting involves more than two (or at most three) people, it’s natural for some attendees to become passive. After all, there isn’t enough speaking time for everyone in a short meeting, and everyone has their own current concerns and challenges.

What’s the solution? Replace large team meetings with smaller, more focused ones that include only the project leader and a designated buddy. The frequency of these meetings should depend on the project’s importance; they could range from once a week to daily or even twice a day for high-priority projects. By keeping these gatherings small, the buddy is forced to fully understand the project’s current status and actively engage in ongoing tasks like reviewing merge requests. Although these short meetings should have the same time constraints as a regular team daily standup, if the buddy senses that the project leader is under significant stress, the meeting could extend into a full pair programming session.

In conclusion, for every important project, instead of assigning it to a single person, always designate two people to be responsible. The buddy can even take over if the lead is unable to continue the project for any reason.

So, despite the title, I’m not actually suggesting we eliminate daily meetings. They are crucial for team cohesion and dynamics, especially for remote or distributed teams. But they could be more efficient. For every current project, the lead and their buddy should be able to deliver a concise report. Having two people speaking should eliminate most of the fluff and give a more accurate picture of the situation. This approach also leaves more room within the meeting for small talk and personal connections 🙂