Jeff Weinstein

Whatever you do, do it every day

Most companies’ internal operations have the same goals— get things done, clearly communicate what’s going on, and remove anything blocking employee success. As a company grows from infancy to first engineer to small team to (gasp!) larger company, the mechanism for this communication must evolve. There are innumerable paths to formalize this important interaction. There are books, blogs, tips and tricks as well as “certified” trainers, masters, and other ring leaders dedicated to teaching and selling you on how to ensure this communication exists. Google for “daily stand up” (490M results), “status meeting” (280M), “agile” (69M), or “scrum” (21M) and you’ll quickly dive into the rabbit hole.

I’ve recently worked at a large company and an early stage start up: at comScore, I managed a three person team within 1000+ person company and at Hyperpublic I was one of ten people. We’ve tried many of the above techniques and have found some strategies that have worked for us.

At a high level, we settled on one meeting each morning at 10:30am where we stand in a circle for at maximum 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, we halt and return to our regularly scheduled days. We don’t wait for people to show up; at 10:30am we start, and at latest 10:45am we stop without exception. Each person answers three questions:

• What did you do yesterday?
• What are you going to do today?
• What’s blocking you?

It took us a while to reach this equilibrium and we didn’t stick to it 100% but it became our norm after a while. We’ll need to try something else now as we transition to Groupon post acquisition.

Two person start up:
If you’re just two people, this communication may be a constant flow of information back and forth throughout the day. Enforcing the strictness of any of the formal strategies might be overkill or ruin the magic of the early days. I still suggest some dedicated, regimented time where you discuss day to day progress without devolving into strategy sessions or more detailed review.

First engineer:
Once you bring on your first engineer, he or she is going to (1) want clarity into the daily operations of the company, (2) have many early blockers, and (3) enjoy showing off progress. The stand up is a safe place for him or her to report how things are going and for you to quickly hear any issues that arise. There is wonderful freedom and opportunity being the first engineer, but it can also be scary and isolating. A daily stand up with the full team is a great way for he or she to see the direction of the company, feel pride in today’s work, and ask any questions.

One large team:
Once you’ve grown to a handful of engineers, some junior and some senior, and maybe have hired a designer or marketing person. The team can quickly feel scattered and the room no longer speaks the same language. It’s critical to bring everyone around the same proverbial table. The full team can understand what each member does and it gives a everyone a larger sense of purpose and team direction when you see the many facets of the company.

Multiple teams:
Now that you’re even larger, you have multiple projects and, abruptly, people have gone from being your buddy to being your “stakeholder.” What we’re doing is now a “priority” and soon becoming an “initiative.” This is the stage where good intentions of how to ensure schedules and communication are clear go off the rails in reality. You might hire a project manager, but that person can quickly be sidelined to a mere record keeper or a schedule holder. He or she will make demands on people’s time and often not have the background to garner confidence from the team. I suggest growing very slowly in terms of formal mechanisms for project management like sprints, hours, or story points and try to have it occur organically. See if one of the current team members is willing (or excited) to take on this additional responsibility before bringing in a standard PM.

What I’ve learned:
Keep it simple:

• For the stand up just stick to: what did you do yesterday, what are you doing today, what’s blocking you. Refrain from diving any deeper.
• Don’t take notes and don’t worry about following up on the specific things people mentioned from the day before.
• It’s not worth forcing people to participate; you and the team have to want this. It won’t work if you’re being dragged to the meeting, always late to an early stand up, or ridiculing the process.
• Just try one aspect of a more formalized technique.

The stickler:

• Organic, bottoms up approach is best to new ideas but you needs one person as the leader. This may be the VP of engineering but could also be any team member. Some have this role change owners over time.
• At Hyperpublic, I suggested that we try daily stand ups and found consensus that it would be worthwhile. Then our head of engineering successfully led the sessions. That worked well.
• The leader ensures the meeting happens on time, ends on time, and encourages people throughout.
• If a teammate reports he or she has an issue that is preventing progress, it’s the leader’s responsibility to solve that blocker and report back next time.

The champion:

• The champion might introduce new aspects to the meeting, gauge interest amongst the crowd, and fine tune things that seem off.
• It’s a coach role; a mix of inspiration and guidance. Make sure to back away to merely a participant as soon as possible and let the leader execute the meetings.

Don’t use technology:

• This meeting is a special time where there are no computers; it’s about people talking to people.
• Don’t be tempted to takes notes during it. If the list of blockers becomes long (you likely have a larger problem), just simply write them on a whiteboard.

Actually stand:

• At first, it may be annoying to enforce, but respect the standing part of a stand up.
• Standing for 10 to 15 minutes signals that this meeting is short term and is different from other parts of the day. You’re not going to review code or debate marketing copy while standing in a circle.
• It sounds like overkill but try to not lean against anything. This is a gateway drug to sitting.

Include executives:

• Including executives and other senior leaders gives the team confidence in management.
• The team will appreciate insight to the executives’ day to day work.
• Executives get to quickly hear a snapshot of what everyone is doing.

Have fun:

• Add something unique and out of the box. It could some quick some silly chant, a joke, or a clap. We had a clap at the end of each meeting and, while it took a while, our rhythm and timing got a lot better!
• New employees will be excited to learn about your insight joke and it’s fun if other teams get to see you do it. It’s the same as in middle school when you saw the rival sports team have that cool pregame ritual.

At minimum, you will likely get the following:

• The whole team in at work by some time every morning.
• A healthy, non-competitive peer pressure to generate substantial progress every day. Who wants to be the person struggling to manufacture a status update?
• Management signals to employees that they care about day to day progress and stresses.
• A collective, non-technology tainted team gathering.
• Cross discipline discussion and quick view into broad operations for all employees.
• Unveil management’s day to day inter workings.
• Decrease the time from existence of a problem to a solution.
• Something fun to do everyday.

Big companies with often poorly executed and unthoughtful status meetings have tarnished the importance and power of these brief interactions. The momentum and unity generated through quick, regular, team communication can ignite your culture. If you desire to have a company where people feel part of the team, crush work everyday, and share wins and losses then carve out dedicated time and try some of these ideas.

Whatever you do, do it every day.