Daily standup meetings were designed for co-located teams. For distributed teams, async standups are often more effective. Here's how to run them well.
The basics: Team members post written updates at a consistent time, covering what they did, what they're working on, and any blockers. Others read and respond when convenient.
Choosing a format: Keep it simple. Three questions (yesterday, today, blockers) work for most teams. Some prefer free-form updates. Experiment to find what fits.
Timing matters: Post at the start of your workday, or end of the previous day. The key is consistency—everyone should know when to expect updates.
Make blockers visible: Use a dedicated section, channel, or tag for blockers. These need faster response than general updates.
Keep it brief: Async standups should take 2-3 minutes to write and 5 minutes to read. If they're taking longer, you're over-complicating.
Actually engage: The value comes from reading and responding to others' updates. If people just post and never read, the practice fails.
Add humanity: Include a fun question occasionally—favorite coffee, weekend plans, current show. Remote teams need social connection.
When to sync: Async standups don't replace all meetings. Schedule sync time when discussions are needed. Use async for the routine stuff.
Tools: Many teams use Slack or Teams with a dedicated channel. Convoe has built-in standup features that automate the process.
Marcus Johnson
Engineering Manager
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