Stephen Turner
Akash Kumar
Jordan Lee
Taylor Scott
What is a stand-up meeting?
A stand-up meeting is a short team check-in about near-term work: what changed, what needs attention and who needs help. A good one ends with shared next steps, not a round of individual status reports.
What should a stand-up accomplish?
A stand-up should make today's work easier to coordinate. Someone should leave knowing a dependency moved, a decision is needed or a colleague can help. If people repeat what's already on the board and no plan changes, the meeting isn't doing its job.
Say a small team is preparing a customer workshop. The slides are ready, but the customer hasn't confirmed who's coming. A useful stand-up spots the gap, asks someone to chase it and adjusts the plan. Counting slides per person would miss the real problem.
Is a stand-up the same as the Daily Scrum?
People use the names interchangeably, but the Daily Scrum has a specific role in Scrum. The Scrum Guide defines it as a 15-minute event for Developers, held every working day of the Sprint. Its purpose is to check progress toward the Sprint Goal and adjust upcoming work.
A general stand-up can serve any team and any rhythm. The Scrum Guide doesn't require standing up or a fixed three-question script. If your team uses Scrum, keep the event's purpose. Don't turn it into a report to a manager.
A simple agenda you can adapt
Try this 10-minute agenda for a general team check-in. It's a suggestion, not a Scrum rule. Keep the work board open so the talk stays close to the work.
Going through the work that needs attention often beats calling on each person in turn. Jason Yip's well-known stand-up patterns call this walking the board. He also suggests 15 minutes or less, with longer problem-solving taken elsewhere.
| Time | Prompt | Useful output |
|---|---|---|
| 2 minutes | What changed since our last check-in? | A shared view of changes affecting the plan |
| 5 minutes | What could prevent the next milestone? | Dependencies, blockers, and decisions needing attention |
| 3 minutes | Who will do what next? | Named owners and follow-up conversations |
Raise blockers without turning it into a workshop
Describe a blocker so the right person can help: the task, what's missing and what waiting will cost. “The account setup is blocked until billing approves a contact for the invitation” is easier to act on than “I'm blocked.”
If it needs a longer look, set up a separate conversation with the people involved. Agree who will start it and when. A parking-lot list without an owner just postpones the problem.
- Name the dependency rather than assigning blame.
- Tell an obstacle apart from a question someone can answer now.
- Leave with one person owning the next step, even if the fix is unknown.
How does a remote or written stand-up work?
If your schedules rarely overlap and you aren't bound to Scrum, try a written check-in. Use one shared place and a clear posting window. Ask for changes, requests for help and each person's next step. Agree who watches for unanswered requests.
A written stand-up has failed if everyone posts and nobody replies. Judge it by whether it helps people coordinate, not by message count. Scrum teams should check any written version against the Daily Scrum's actual requirements.
How can you tell whether it's working?
After a few weeks, ask the team for a concrete example of something the stand-up helped resolve. Look for clearer ownership, dependencies found earlier or a plan change that saved wasted work.
If it keeps running long, find the conversations causing it. They may need their own decision meeting. If there's rarely anything to coordinate, meet less often. Keep the format only while it helps.