Tag Archives: Team Meetings

Hey there! I know it can be difficult to know what to say in standup. One of the most important things you can do to keep your team in the loop is to share a meaningful standup update on your progress. Think of it like a relay race – each team member needs to know where the baton is, how fast it’s moving, and whether there are any obstacles ahead.

When I enter standup and giving my update, I like to ponder: “What info can I give to the team that might be meaningful for a standup update?”

Tips for sharing meaningful standup updates

Update the team on your current work status
Let your team know how close you are to meeting milestones, deadlines, and if you’ve encountered any issues. For example, “I’m 85% complete with the License/phone selector for site settings and should have it ready for review by tomorrow morning.”
Communicate any changes that may impact others
Let your team know of any changes to your work that may impact or unblock the work of others. For example, “I’ve finished the API bits for both site and account phone/license, which should now unblock the UI stories for the rest of the team.”
Customize your updates
Tailor your updates to your team members’ interests and needs. For example, provide more details on a technical challenge for a team member who’s interested.
Be proactive in sharing updates or asking questions
Don’t wait for someone to ask for an update. For example, “I wrote up a bug I believe I noticed a bug in production, I would like to see if we should address it now or a future sprint.”
Provide context
Share not only what you’ve done but why you’ve done it. Providing context can help non-technical team members better understand the value it brings, and how it fits into the overall vision. For example, “I’ll be starting work on the date pickers, this is part of the new reporting view we’re building.”

Why do Good Standup Updates matter, you ask?

Well, here are a few reason:

Keep your team up-to-date
Regular updates help everyone stay informed about the progress of the project and any potential roadblocks.
Identify and address issues early
Sharing updates on any issues or challenges you’re facing can help your team address them early on, preventing them from becoming bigger problems down the line.
Foster team cohesiveness
Sharing updates can help your team understand each other’s work and goals, leading to better communication and collaboration towards a shared vision.

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
– George Bernard Shaw (1856 to 1950)

So, the next time you’re in a standup meeting, don’t just rattle off a list of tasks you completed – instead think of your standup updates like a baton in a relay race – an opportunity to keep everyone informed, stay on track, and work together to reach the finish line.

Ask yourself: “What info can I give to the team that might be meaningful for a standup update?” and you’ll build a strong team culture that values open communication and collaboration, leading to more productive and successful projects.

Engineering Teams

10 Great Topics for Engineering All Hands

December 7, 2021 Jonathan Stassen Leave a comment

What are good Topics for Engineering All Hands?

Bringing together an engineering team is something we all can agree we should be doing. But how do make sure it’s not a waste of time?

We might ask many questions that will guide us in the direction to find topics for engineering all hands.

What updates are value for the team?
What topics should be presented?
What makes the teams feel involved or appreciated?
What information might the team not get elsewhere?
What would help align the team in a shared vision?
What formats make the most sense to present in?
What might excited the team?

Your team will be unique and will always be evolving to find new patterns of topics that gel well and are provide the most value. Ask your team what they would find valuable, experiment and try new things.

Here are several ideas of my ideas for topics for engineering all hands to get you started in running great engineering all hands.

10 Great Topics for Engineering All Hands

1. Impact of what has been built

This could be backed with numbers like sales, hours saved, etc.

Customer stories how they using what the team has been building. This could even involve bringing in real customers to meet the team and share their real life usage of the product.

2. User Feedback about what we’ve been built.

Similar to impact, however this might be reviews, tweets, emails, or feedback of what users are saying about the product we’re building.

3. Vision of why and what we’re building across teams at high level.

What are the business goals that we’re trying to meet?
How are team roadmaps satisfying those business needs?
What sort of things will be building over the next 3, 6, or even 12 months?

4. Light technical deep dive

Share big picture technical demos. This could be big projects, or ones that are good general knowledge sharing. Even though the Engineering All-Hands will mostly have technical folks, refrain from deep-diving too far, that might be better for a technical show-case. We have so many other things to share during the All Hands!

5. Updates around pay / careers / hiring

Are we planning on hiring team members?
What level are we hiring for and for which teams?
Are there updates about how careers are evaluated/structured?

6. Vision of how we want to be structured and grow as a product org

What are the Engineering Orgs vision of who we want to be, what our values are? How do we better ourselves and improve so that we might be one of the best Engineering Ors.

7. Opportunities to make an impact

Share needs that are across the entire Engineering organization as opportunities to get involved.

Are you forming a think tank group about coding standards? Want to form a team to plan an Engineering Off-Site Outing? Looking for volunteers to brainstorm a new product?

8. Recognition across all teams

What wins do teams have? Some may be customer facing, others interesting technical accomplishments. It’s important to recognize an entire team, not just individuals.

9. Promotion announcements

Celebrate team members who are growing! Promotions aren’t handed out lightly, with a good career band system they are tangible accomplishments. We should be proud and celebrate them!

10. New hire intros

This may have been also done at the Company wide level or at the team level. This is an opportunity to have fun intro at a technical level and across the entire Engineering organization.

Further Thinking

Who should be presenting at an Engineering All Hands?
How might presentation roles be shared?
How might an Engineering All Hands be interactive?
How do you Host a Great All Hands?

Project Management

Why We Should Consider 1 Week Sprints.

March 4, 2021 Jonathan Stassen Leave a comment

You know how 2 week sprints are the de-facto go-to pattern for many teams? I don’t believe they are the best for teams and we should all consider 1 week sprints instead, and I’ll tell you why.

The Downfalls of 2 Weeks Sprints

Longer meetings to plan for 2 weeks
Need more Context
Hard to estimate how much work can be accomplished
Over commitment is easy
Doesn’t accommodate changing requirements
Doesn’t accommodate newly discovered scope as well
Doesn’t accommodate surprises that pull for attention away from the team (support, external teams)
Can create anxiety when falling behind, especially considering work remaining
PMs have less certainty on sprint progress
Slow feedback cycle

The Upsides of 1 Week Sprints

Tighter feedback loops
Shorter meetings
Allows team to be more precise in their commitments
Forces team to think about the now (highest priority).
If scope or focus change occurs, only interrupts 1 weeks worth of work.
If over commitment occurs it is smaller and easier to correct.
Generally feels more exciting, each week starts anew.
Weekly routine lightens the mental load

Won’t 1 Week Sprints have more meetings?

Since we have only one week to plan for, we must have more meetings, and this take more time right? Surprisingly you’ll spend less time in meetings!

Touching base on a weekly basis there are fewer surprises and thus fewer ‘new’ topics that need to be introduced.

For instance, when we are driving a car, it’s natural to drift a little side-to-side within our lane. But, instead of large jarring adjustments every minute, we make many frequent little adjustments keeping us centered on the road and therefore moving smoothly around every turn along the way.

Similarly, frequent touch bases are simpler and shorter, and therefore also keep the team in sync moving smoothly through their work.

Now let’s take a look at what a 1 week sprint schedule might look like.

The 1 Weeks Sprint Schedule

Here is what a possible 1 week Sprint Schedule could look like.

Outside of this schedule there still may be additional team meetings such as Project Planning, Project Kickoffs, or Planning Quarter Roadmap.

A week calendar view showing the meetings on each day including standups, grooming, retros, and demos. There are only 6 meetings displayed in total. Standups shown every day at 10am, three of which are longer in length because they include Scope, grooming, and demos. Retro remains it's own meeting. — A sample 1 week Sprint Schedule

Standup (15min) – Everyday at the same time, occasionally bundled with other team meetings.

* Touch base to talk about work in progress
* Update team members of any changes or needs

Week Scope (30min + 15min Standup) – The kickoff for the week.

* Review Previous Sprint metrics, work completed
* Review Previous Sprints remaining stories that will cary over to this weeks sprint.
* Define the weeks big picture focus for the team
* Pull in new stories & Prioritize them
* Pull in/out stories until matches teams throughput (don’t compromise and over commit!)
* Confirm the scope committed to
* End with Standup

Grooming (15min + 15min Standup) – Looking forward to future work and estimating stories

* Start with standup
* Introducing upcoming work & projects
* Breaking down, defining, and estimating stories
* Delegating project leads for spike work

Retro (30min) – How can the team improve

* Depending on how well the team is running this can be every 2 weeks instead of every week.
* Retros should always focus on how the team can improve to become the best team.
* Retros can be sometimes heavy. Therefore Thursdays tend to be best to avoid ending the week with any weight.

Demos! (15min + 15min Standup) – Celebrating the weeks wins!

* Start with Standup
* End the week with great for team morale
* An open form where any team member may share work (in progress or completed) from the week
* Great for knowledge sharing
* Ends the week on a high note.

(expand each section above for a detailed description & structure)

Bundling Team Meetings with Standup

Folks tend to prefer fewer meetings. A clever tool to utilize – combine meetings together that have the same or similar attendees.

In the sample 1 week sprint schedule above, we’ve combined Weekly Scope, Grooming, and Demo meetings with standup. This takes 9 meetings down to 6. Everything is simpler and lighter.

Summary

It’s worthwhile to consider switching your team to 1 Week Sprints. They will give your team more energy and more accurate commitment to their work. 1 Week Sprints will set your team up for even better success.

What does your team use? Would you ever switch?

(cover photo credit: Jonathan Stassen / JStassen Photography)

Thoughts