Daily stand-ups originated from the SCRUM software development methodology but have found use in almost all teams and functional areas across all different business verticals. Essentially, a stand-up is a daily check-in with all people in a team or project, with short, sharp updates from each person.

Teams that meet in-person, often do so whilst standing in a circle (hence the name) — which also helps to discourage long drawn out conversations as people's legs (and patience) start to tire!

Updates from each person should include (i) what they worked on yesterday (or when they were last working), (ii) what they plan to work on today, and if relevant (iii) any blockers that are slowing them down. Teammates may wish to chime in with quick questions, but it's recommended, particularly in bigger teams, that anything much longer than a yes or no answer should be taken offline at the end of the stand-up. Remember — other team members may not have much interest in the detail!

Stand-ups are great for small teams, but beware that as a team grows, time can push out and engagement can suffer if updates are not relevant to most people. Try limiting individual updates to max 1-2 minutes per person as team size gets larger, and consider breaking into smaller groups for separate stand-ups when team size gets to around 8-10 people. If you are constantly running over time, it is a sign that you probably need to try one of these tactics.

Using Meetric can actually address a number of issues that typical note-less stand-ups are prone to — including the challenge of remembering/summarising yesterday's work, and the lack of record should anyone need to recall something (e.g. - absentees getting up to speed; or the tracking of new actions arising from stand-up).

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For Meetric users, we recommend using this template as follows:

1. Copy the template into your meeting notes in Meetric, and duplicate it for each user in the meeting, typing their name above it.
2. Share the link in the meeting event (if your team is all on Meetric, they will already have access).
3. Each guest should pre-populate their update against the three questions. They can do so either as actions or just regular notes. Actions have the benefit of being assigned to an owner, so they appear in your Actions page as well.
4. When the meeting starts, guests can provide additional context for their update, and note down any additional detail or actions that come out of the rapid discussion.
5. After the meeting, guests (including absentees) can reflect back on the notes and actions, and update their status as needed.
6. For the next daily stand-up, you will automatically be able to see the previous days' notes — essentially saving everyone from recalling and retyping!

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