🎙️ Meeting Facilitation
Running effective meetings that produce decisions and action items.
Before the meeting
- Define a clear purpose — What decision or outcome do we need?
- Write an agenda with time-boxed topics
- Invite only necessary participants
- Share pre-read materials at least 24h in advance
During the meeting
- Start on time, end on time
- State the goal at the beginning
- Assign a note-taker and a timekeeper
- Park off-topic discussions in a "parking lot"
- Summarize decisions and action items before ending
After the meeting
- Send notes within 1 hour: decisions, action items, owners, deadlines
- Follow up on action items at the next meeting
- Cancel recurring meetings that no longer add value
Meeting types
| Type | Duration | Cadence | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standup | 15 min | Daily | Blockers surfaced |
| Sprint planning | 1-2h | Per sprint | Sprint backlog |
| Decision meeting | 30-60 min | As needed | Clear decision + rationale |
| Brainstorm | 45-60 min | As needed | Ideas list, next steps |
| Retro | 1h | Per sprint | Improvement actions |
| 1:1 | 30 min | Weekly | Alignment, feedback |
Rules of thumb
- If it can be an email, don't make it a meeting
- No agenda = no meeting
- Every meeting ends with: who does what by when