Daily Standup Meetings: 7 Best Practices

Discover the do’s and don’ts of running a daily standup meeting to make sure you’re getting the most from this powerful tool.

September 29, 2022
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How would you describe your job to a five year old?
What season would you be?
What is a weird food you have tried? Would you eat it again?
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Would you go in the mother-ship with aliens if they landed on Earth tomorrow?
What is your favorite season?
Do prefer working from home or the office?
What is your earliest memory of this job?
What is the best thing you have bought so far this year?
What is the earliest book you remember?
If you had to move to another country, which one would you choose?
You are the best criminal mastermind in the world. What crime would you commit if you knew you would get away with it?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
What was the last thing you ate?
What person from history would you add to Mount Rushmore?
What is a weird fact you know?
What is your favorite part of working from home?
Were the Spice Girls a good team?
Imagine you can instantly learn any language. Which would you choose?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Which fictional team is the best team of all time?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What do you usually eat for a quick lunch?
What simple food will you never eat?
Show us the weirdest thing you have in the room with you right now.
Would you rather stay at a hotel or an AirBNB?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
Are you more productive in the morning or at night?
Who is someone in your community that makes a difference?
Who was your most unique pet?
Choose one famous person from history you want on your team during a zombie apocalypse.
What is a good way to give back to the community?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
Is Hugh Grant funny?
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Would you want to have an imaginary friend today? Did you have one as a child?
What actor or actress would you want to play you in the movie about your life?
What is the best super power?
What is your New Years resolution?
You can only eat one food again for the rest of your life. What is it?
What is the best work holiday?
What is the first gift you remember receiving?
Would you rather join Metallica or Backstreet Boys?
What is the best example of a community you have seen?
What is an easy way to do something nice for someone?
Show us your phone background and tell the story behind why you picked this image.
What was your first job?
Pick any band to play at your funeral.
If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
Which superpower would you give to your arch enemy?
What is the most obscure superpower you would want?
What emoji best describes how you are feeling right now?
If you could live in any country, which country would you pick?
Would you rather live in a city or a town?
What is your favorite holiday?
What is something you accomplished as part of a team?
What is your standard office lunch?
What is your most used phone app?
What is your favorite season?
Have you ever won something as a team?
Imagine you are a professional baseball player. What is your introduction song?
Beach holiday or ski trip?
Have you ever been to a funny comedy show?
Would you rather live at the North Pole or the South Pole?
What is your favorite song to sing?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Imagine you could teleport anywhere. Where would you go right now?
What is the most unusual job you have heard of?
What was the last thing you ate?
You can visit any fictional time or place. Which would you pick?
What do your family and friends think you do all day?
What movie do you wish you could watch again for the first time?
Show us your most-used emoji.
What was the most unique style or fashion trend you ever embraced?
What movie defined your generation?
You are stranded on a remote desert island. Are you alone or with your worst enemy?
What is your favorite knock-knock joke?
Have you ever told someone Santa is not real?
Do you know how to speak more than one language?
On a scale of 1 – 10, how much of a team player are you?
What is your #1 recommendation in this city?
What is your favorite holiday?
What bucket list item do you most want to check off in the next six months?
What is your favorite mythical creature?
What was the first way you made money?
If you could be great at any Olympic sport, which would it be?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
When did you start liking/hating mushrooms?
Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Do you take your PTO all at one time, or another way?
Which show do you remember most from your childhood?
Which beverage goes best with pizza?
Would you want to have a personal assistant follow you around everywhere and do what you asked of them?
Have you ever met your idol?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Would you rather live 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future?
What is your hobby?
When you are alone in the car, what volume is the music at?
Imagine you no longer have to work. How would you spend a Tuesday?
What is your favorite type of sandwich?

A daily standup meeting is a simple and effective way of getting your team on the same page and firing on all cylinders.

But your teammates aren’t going to appreciate having a meeting on their calendar every day unless it adds real value.

Read on to discover the do’s and don’ts of running a daily standup meeting to make sure you’re getting the most from this powerful productivity tool.

What is a team standup?

A team standup – also known as a daily scrum meeting – is a meeting where teammates take turns to share a quick status update.

How long is a standup meeting?

Standups are usually short and sweet. The point of them is to make sure each member of a team knows what their colleagues are working on, not get into long discussions. That’s where the name “standup” comes from – they should be over so fast you can hold them standing up without needing to take a seat.

What do you say in a standup meeting?

Everyone involved in a standup meeting should share:

  • What they’ve done since the last meeting.
  • What they’re going to be doing until the next meeting.
  • Any blockers holding them back from being able to complete their current tasks.
  • Anything that could impact their teammates’ ability to complete their tasks.
  • What they’ll be moving on to when they’ve finished their current project.

Try Assembly today to make async and in-person standups as streamlined as possible.

How do you run a team standup?

Get the most from your daily standup meetings by sticking to these tried and tested do’s and don’ts: 

Keep it small

Standups work best when they’re short and sweet. And that’s never going to happen if half your company is on the invite list. 

As a rule of thumb, a standup should only ever last 15 minutes. If it’s taking longer than that for everyone involved to share a quick update on what they’ve done, what they’re going to do, and what’s blocking them, then it’s time to start thinking about ways you can split them into smaller groups. 

Pick the right cadence

It makes sense for some teams to meet daily, for some to meet weekly, and for some to meet fortnightly. It all depends on the type of project you’re working on and how many hours a week you're working on the project you’re meeting about.

Meet too often and you’ll waste your teammates’ time. Don’t meet often enough and your project is liable to go off the rails. Experiment with the right cadence for your standups for the best results.

Set it in stone

It’s crucial that you set your huddles in stone in each attendees’ calendar once you’ve settled on the right cadence for them. Standups don’t work if your teammates only turn up to them when they feel like it or think they can spare the time. So, make it clear that your team needs to consider your standups a must-attend meeting. Otherwise things are bound to unravel. 

Book a demo of Assembly to make it easy for your team to set up daily standup meetings. 

Ask people to come prepared

Your standup meetings aren’t going to be particularly helpful to anyone involved if your teammates don’t come prepared to share a quick status update. So, be sure to ask each attendee to spend a few minutes before each standup gathering information around the three main things they need to cover: what they’ve done since the last meeting, what they’re working on now, and what blockers are holding them back. 

Your standups will be a lot more effective if everyone involved spends just a few minutes preparing. Create a daily standup workflow with Assembly to make preparing for standups as easy as possible for your team.

Don’t get into the weeds

The purpose of a daily standup is to get everyone attending up to speed on what’s going on across a whole project and make sure any potential blockers are removed. It’s not the time or place to dive into details. Things should stay high-level, and in-depth discussions should be saved for a separate meeting outside this update.

Try Assembly to make arranging and running standups as easy as possible.

Follow the leader

Standups can easily get derailed. So, it’s crucial that someone is always in charge of keeping things on track and making sure everyone shares a clear and concise status update. While the team leader might default to being in charge of a standup, rotating who takes the reins can be a good way to boost engagement during the meetings and give employees looking for more responsibility a chance to step up.

Don’t drift off when it’s someone else’s turn to speak

The whole point of a standup is to get to grips with what’s going on across the project you’re working on. If you zone out when your teammates are sharing their status updates or spend that time thinking about what you’re going to say during yours, you're going to miss important details. That’s why properly preparing for each huddle is so important – it frees you up to actually engage with what your teammates are saying.

Hit all these marks during your standup meetings with your team to go beyond just standing up with additional employee incentive programs. Get started today by setting up and answering a daily standup with Assembly.

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