Ask HN: Are meetings painful for you? If so, how would you improve them?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17795487

by eafkuor • 8 years ago

2 3 8 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

In my team we have recurrent meetings such as demos, retro and planning. During those meetings most people are absent minded, often including myself.

Do you experience a similar situation at your job? If so, how would you like to improve it?

chrisbennet• 8 years ago

Bad meetings are often the result of having meetings to discuss things that could/should have been done in email before the meeting. Send out a meeting agenda so people can come to the meeting with answers instead of being blindsided.

Bad meeting: Sue: "Could you get me the figures for bugs-over-time?" Bob: "I'll have to get back to you on that."

Good meeting: Sue: "Bob investigate our bugs-over-time metric. Can you share with us what you found out?"

If you are asking a question in a meeting that could have been asked before the meeting just as easily, you're wasting expensive "meeting time".

iamkp• 8 years ago

Recurring meetings are bad. Most people come unprepared and since it is recurring unless you have made any progress, you are wasting time just for the sake of it.

Publishing agenda before meeting is a must. There is no point in starting a meeting on a blank note.

Many meetings can just be conducted over threads on slack or Microsoft team. What I mean by this is, the type of meeting where you want to confirm or come to an agreement over something, that chat thread can help flush out details before you waste everyones time over it.

In short, move most of your meeting and emails to your collaboration tool.

greenyoda• 8 years ago

In short, move most of your meeting and emails to your collaboration tool.

Even old-fashioned collaboration tools like e-mail can be used effectively to avoid meetings. A discussion of an issue that doesn't need to be decided immediately can just as easily be done asynchronously via e-mail.

I've gotten countless meeting requests that are just some product manager wanting to get a specific item of information from a group of developers. I've averted many of these meetings just by declining the meeting request with "Here's the information you need, no need to have a meeting about this. E-mail me if you need more information."

Ask HN: Are meetings painful for you? If so, how would you improve them?

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