Tips, formats, and anti-patterns for daily scrums.
Hot take: synchronous daily standups are a waste of time for distributed teams across 3+ time zones. We switched to async standups via Slack (using Geekbot) a year ago. Results: ✅ **What improved:** - People actually think about their updates (no more "I did stuff") - Written record we can search later - No more 6am or 10pm meetings for anyone - More honest blockers reported (less social pressure) ❌ **What we miss:** - Spontaneous problem-solving - Team bonding moments - Reading body language for stress/burnout **Our compromise:** Async daily + one 15-min sync call on Wednesdays for face time. Would love to hear from other distributed teams!
I'm at my wit's end. Our daily standup has ballooned to 45 minutes with a 7-person team. People are going deep into problem-solving mode and I can't seem to rein it in. Things I've tried: - The classic 3 questions format - Walking the board - A physical timer - Standing up (we're remote now so this doesn't work) The devs say the long standups are 'valuable' but I can see half the team zoning out. What am I doing wrong?