One of the most important management tool you can use as a team leader to improve the communication and performance of your team is daily standups. Here, team members come together to discuss project updates, goals, challenges and achievements.
While this is usually done in person (hence the name of the meeting), we've figured out that running asynchronous standups using Check-ins as a great way to go for a remote team or hybrid team where their members are scattered across different timezones.
Every team member can share their status updates from their chat, keep the meetings short and get more out of that work day.
What is a Daily Standup meeting?
A daily standup is a daily meeting or a daily huddle in which some team members gather for a short, informal meeting and allow each person to discuss what they have done or achieved within the last 24 hours, and discuss their work items and an actionable plan of what they're going to do that day. Not only is it good for team collaboration and lets every team member speak about their work day goals, it also builds up team accountability and teamwork.
Where are they used?
These are very popular in scrum and agile methodologies, perhaps one of the most well known scrum ceremonies (alongside the likes of sprint retrospective) where it is also known as a daily scrum, scrum meeting, round robin, etc. Where a scrum master or an agile coach leads the meeting agenda and organizes the "daily scrums". They are virtually the same as daily standups and can be implemented without running a scrum framework or a scrum team.
How to implement a daily standup in your chat workflow:
1. Set goals
- Give a focus to the week. This is your "prospective" outline. Use these expectations to set concrete expectations for your team and make sure everyone gathers around them. You could center around your sprint goal, or set action items of each meeting.
2. Share results
- At the end of each async meeting, say within the hour after starting your shift or so, share the results in a channel. What did you accomplish? What challenges did you face? What results did you expect to achieve, but didn't? Sharing results in a public channel is a great way to improve team alignment and team collaboration. Pro tip: Share your blockers on an specific "Blockers" channel, that way every team member can see where their teammates are blocked and lend a hand!
3. Follow up
- Ask the attendees to follow up on any points they missed or want to continue discussing in the reporting threads. Use this space to loop in teammates that weren't in the first report due to timezone differences or anything of the sort.
4. Track results
- At the end of the week, gather the results in a weekly log. This will help you track performance over time.
Best practices for async daily standups
Effective daily standups are critical to keeping remote teams aligned and ensuring everyone is aware of each other's progress. With the rise of remote work, asynchronous daily standups have become increasingly popular, allowing team members to share their progress and plans without the need for everyone to be available at the same time.
However, the quality of the standups is key to their effectiveness. If team members write vague or irrelevant updates, it can lead to confusion and a lack of clarity which is one of the most common pitfalls.
Tips for creating effective asynchronous daily standups
1. Be concise and to the point
Your daily standup meetings should be easy to read and understand. Stick to the key points of what you worked on the previous day, what you're working on today, and if there are any roadblocks. Be very mindfull of your daily standup questions and keep it short and sweet (KISS).
2. Be specific
Vague updates such as "worked on project X" or "had meetings all day" are not helpful. Instead, be specific about what you worked on or what the meetings were about. This will help team members understand what progress has been made and how it impacts the team's overall goals.
3. Include any blockers or challenges
If there are any issues preventing you from making progress on a project, make sure to include them in your update. This will help the team understand what challenges you're facing and how they can support you.
4. But avoid unnecessary details
While it's important to be specific, avoid including unnecessary details that don't add value to your update. Stick to the key points and keep your update focused.
5. Use consistent formatting
To make it easier for team members to read and understand your update, use a consistent formatting style. For example, you could use bullet points or numbered lists to break up your update into easy-to-read sections.
Here are some examples of good and bad asynchronous daily standups:
Don't do this! 🚫
Yesterday I worked on project X and had meetings all day. Today I'm going to work on project Y.
This update is too vague and doesn't provide any useful information for the team. It's unclear what progress was made on project X, and there's no indication of what the meetings were about.
Do this instead 👍
Yesterday
I completed the design phase of project X and started working on the development. 🎨
Had a meeting with the marketing team to discuss the project's launch plan. 🔻
Today / blockers
I plan to finish the development of project X, but I'm running into a roadblock with a specific feature. I've reached out to John for help, and we'll be collaborating on a solution.
This update is much more specific and provides valuable information for the team. It's clear what progress was made on project X, and the meeting with the marketing team indicates progress towards the project's launch. The update also includes information about a roadblock and how the team is working to solve it.
In conclusion, effective asynchronous daily standups are critical for remote teams to stay aligned and make progress towards their goals. By following these tips and using good examples as a guide, team members can create standups that are clear, concise, and valuable to the entire team.
Follow this best practice
Learn how to configure this template here:
Configuring your checkins and followups with our daily standup Templates ->
