Async standups: Our team has been doing them for a year
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!
3 Comments
We do something similar — async Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri, sync on Wednesday. The sync day keeps the human connection alive.
Key question: how do you handle urgent blockers in async mode? By the time someone reads the standup update, half the day is gone.
@sarah_sm Great point. We have a separate #blockers channel where people post immediately, not wait for standup. Standup is for awareness, not urgency.