Daily Stand-Up Formats That Work

🌀 Session 1: Stand-Up, Don’t Stumble. 🗣️ 15 Minutes of Fame: Turning Daily Stand-Ups into Strategic Syncs “What did you do yesterday?” “What will you do today?” “Any blockers?” Sound familiar? Now hear the internal dialogue of most developers during this ritual: “Can’t this be an email?” “Why am I listening to updates that don’t affect me?” “I’ve zoned out. Twice.” Welcome to the Daily Stand-Up—often the most misunderstood and misused ceremony in Scrum. But here’s the truth: 👉 It’s not a status meeting 👉 It’s not about impressing your Scrum Master. 👉 It’s definitely not your morning podcast. When done right, it’s your team’s daily dashboard—a fast check-in that saves time, kills confusion, and keeps everyone laser-focused on the Sprint Goal. So why does it often fall flat? And how can we fix it? ⚠️ Why Daily Stand-Ups Fail (Quietly) 1. People report to the Scrum Master instead of to each other 2. Updates are irrelevant, vague, or rambling 3. There’s no connection to actual work or the Sprint Goal 4. Timebox? What timebox? Let’s face it—if the Stand-Up feels like a formality, your team will treat it like one. ✅ Here’s How to Turn Things Around 1️⃣ Walk the Board, Not the People Instead of going in a circle, walk through the workflow. “What’s in progress that we can move forward today?” “What’s stuck in ‘To Do’ that needs clarification?” 👀 The board becomes the map. The team becomes the navigators. 2️⃣ Rotate the Facilitator Don’t let the Scrum Master be the traffic cop every day. 🌀 Rotating facilitation builds ownership and breaks the dependency dynamic. Try assigning the “Scrum DJ of the Day.” Trust me—it works. 3️⃣ Ask Better Questions Ditch the stale script. Go deeper. Go strategic. Try: “What’s one thing that could derail us today?” “Who’s blocked or needs help?” “Are we still aligned on our Sprint Goal?” 🎯 Every question should pull the team closer to delivery—not just check off a box. 💡 Bonus Tips for Stand-Up Magic 1. Keep a visible countdown timer (yes, even virtual ones) 2. Standing up = better energy (even on Zoom—no slouching!) 3. Start on time. Always. Late starts = bad habits 4. End with a unifying line like: “Let’s win this sprint, one story at a time.” 🔆 Final Thought The Daily Stand-Up isn’t about talking. It’s about syncing. It’s your team’s daily dose of alignment, clarity, and collaboration. As a Scrum Master, your job isn’t to control it—it’s to elevate it. So tomorrow, when you walk into your 15-minute window, don’t just ask for updates. Ask for outcomes. Ask for clarity. Ask for purpose. 🎯 And if your team walks out just 1% more focused, 1% more aligned— Congratulations. You just ran a stand-up that stands out. 🔔 Next up in the series: Session 2 – Sprint Planning Without the Pain (Trust me, that one has battle stories.) ➕ Follow me Kamal for coaching insights that don’t just sound good—they work. #AgileCoach #ScrumMastery #StandUpMeeting #ScrumCeremonies #AgileLeadership #CoachingSeries

Most managers suck at running team meetings. (but it doesn’t have to be that way) Bad meetings drain everyone’s energy. And sap productivity. I’ve tried every approach over 15+ years. But, the clear winner is an EOS-style meeting. EOS = Entrepreneurial Operating System (terrible name, but a great system) Here’s how to supercharge your team meetings. 👇 1) 𝗦𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗲 (5 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀): ↳ Everyone shares one personal and professional win. ↳ This builds connections and highlights progress. 2) 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀 (5 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀): ↳ Out-of-office reminders & company  ↳ prospect-related information. 3) 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱 (5 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀): ↳ Review every team member's scorecard ↳ Identify off-track metrics ↳ Add any roadblocks to an Issues List. 4) 𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗸 (90-𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀) 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 (5 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀): ↳Label each as Rock "on-track" or "off-track" ↳Add issues to the Issues List if needed. 5) 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗧𝗼-𝗗𝗼𝘀 (5 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀): ↳ Go through the team's To-Do list. ↳ Ensure tasks are completed ↳ Discuss any barriers to completion. 6) 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘀 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲𝘀 (30 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀): ↳ Dedicate most of the meeting the Issues List. ↳ Solve complex problems together ↳ Create new To-Dos to address them. 7) 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 (1-5 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀): ↳ Team members rate the meeting from 1-10. ↳ Any score under 8 requires feedback. That’s it my friends. Give it a try. You and your team will thank me later. What’s your favorite team meeting format? -- 👋 I’m Michael a CRO w/ $1B+ in exits. 📥 save it for later 💬 comment with your thoughts ♻️ repost if this was helpful.

A tip for your Daily sync/Standup/Scrum: DO: Have everyone walk through the shared goals that you are hoping to get done by the end of the iteration. If people need help on stuff, or have important information to add, let them bring it up. DON'T: Have everyone stand in a circle (or be in a zoom call), answering three questions in between being bored and inattentive (or on a different monitor), while a pretend 'leader' takes notes and moves individual tickets. The standup is about supporting each other. Collaboration and focus are what you are trying to create. It doesn't matter if no ticket moves or if no notes are taken. What matters is the team centering for the day on what matters the most to collectively get done, and the ability to leave the meeting and start doing that - including having any followup conversations. The other advantage to this is it takes way less time. I've run these standups REGULARLY in less than 10 minutes and in a way that teams were happy to participate in, because they basically had 10 minutes to talk about the most important stuff that our team should be talking about. By the way, if there ISN'T some value or experience you are working on collectively and together, or you don't have shared goals, then you aren't actually functioning as a team that a daily sync/standup/scrum was designed for, and you're wasting a heck of a lot of everyone's time. So either become that team (and if it makes sense, this is the right move), or stop having a daily meeting among a group of people working independently from each other. #agiledevelopment #gameproduction #gamedev #standup

Tips about daily (standup or scrum or sync or meeting or connection or whatever-you-call-it). 👉 The three question format gets boring. Change it from the usual "do" to "done!" 1. What I got *done* (Not what I did) 2. What I will get *done* (Not what I will do) 3. What kept me from *done* 👉 Instead of *people* taking turns, *work items* take turns Proceed in order of iteration backlog priority At each item, those working on it, tell about the item Don't talk about items no one is working (If all your items have someone working on them, what might that mean?) 👉 Do Standup Poker (Kalpesh Shah, inventor) 1. Don't talk about stuff until the team answers the following question with a silent, fist-of-five-like confidence vote 2. Question: How confident are we that as a team we will meet the Sprint Goal [or plan] by end of Sprint? 3. At the same time, all team members hold up 0 to 5 fingers 0️⃣=No way! 1️⃣=No 2️⃣=Difficult 3️⃣=Yes, I think 4️⃣=Yes 5️⃣=Easy! 4. Dig into low numbers and plan what to do about it before next sync 👉 The daily sync contains status but is not a status meeting. It is a planning meeting of the next 24 hours 👉 Scrum Master: Do not call on people to talk. Do not dominate the conversations, you are not a project manager collecting status. This is the Dev Team's planning meeting. Perhaps facilitate, don't control. 👉 Product Owner: Do not call on people to talk. Do not dominate the conversations, you are not a project manager collecting status. It is the Dev Team's planning meeting. Participate, don't control. 👉 Dev Team: This meeting is for you to plan the next 24 hours, plan it The iteration or Sprint backlog is your plan, own it Your Scrum Master and Product Owner will support you, ask for what you need #dailyscrum #dailystandup #dailysync #scrum #agile #productowner #scrummaster