Daily Stand-Up Innovations To Try

🌀 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

I've always hated doing daily stand-ups. I started doing them as a necessity. It all changed when we switched to Daily Huddles. Daily stand-ups are cool in the sense that you can start the day by aligning with your team. But in very short time they become an annoying moment of the day. You'll notice your team joining with zero intentions or interest of being there. They just do it. They'll start feeling really dense and heavy, fast. When I discovered Daily Huddles, I quickly knew I've been missing out for a long time. Right out of the bat, Daily Huddles are structured meetings. They have a little framework, and a facilitator who should follow it. This is already a great start for me. I see agenda + facilitator based meetings way more productive than anything else. We've only been doing them at Jams for about a week and a half at this point. But I've been feeling really excited about this since day 1. It creates a big dopamine hit. Daily stand-ups are simple meetings where you answer what you did yesterday, and what you'll do today. Daily Huddles change the game. Here's how to do them: 1) Do it as early as possible, ideally first thing in the morning 2) Max duration time: 8 minutes. Max people: 10. 3) No cameras 4) Follow a specific people order These allows for people to join whenever they want, doing whatever they want. They could be having breakfast, walking the dog, training, or in bed for that matter. The most important thing is for everyone to join. The agenda: 1) Share a piece of good news. One per person. It could be work or personal related. You'll learn how many good news happen on a day to day basis. 2) Share warnings or red flags. 3) Share if you've accomplished your main task the previous day (just share, don't debate or double click), and what your main focus will be for the day. The fastest and shortest Huddle we did was 6 minutes long. Some lessons learned so far: 1) Don't let people dive deep into things. It's just a moment for sharing, not for analyzing. If there's anything that needs a longer conversation, do a separate meeting for that later. 2) Encourage people to think about good news ahead, in advanced. Doing the homework of thinking about good news forces everyone to review past days and become more aware. 3) Try to be as specific as possible with focus tasks. Avoid things like "today I'll continue working on X project". Look for things like "my main focus today is designing 3 new screens for the app". 4) Make sure to be a great facilitator, so others learn how to do it in case you can't make it sometime. As I mentioned, we're only about 1 week into this new way of doing daily stand-ups, so take this is a build in public case. But I can already tell the benefits. They are that great. And I'm already excited about seeing my team slowly transition into a high performing product team. PS: shout-out to Ignacio Carcavallo for suggesting Daily Huddles 🚀 Happy week!

Let’s be honest. Traditional standups are a waste of time. “Yesterday I was in meetings...” “Today I’ll catch up...” “Tomorrow I hope to...” Why are we all here? That’s not a standup. It’s a calendar recap no one needs. Let’s be real: I don’t care how many calls you took or what doctor’s appointment you had. No one’s moving faster because you shared your admin log. No one’s solving problems with these useless updates. What do I care about? ✅ Are we on track? ✅ If not, why? ✅ What’s blocked? ✅ How do we fix it together? ⚠️ TPMs, PMs, Scrum Masters: Stop wasting the only time your full team might be together all day! ✅ Protect their time ✅ Escalate early ✅ Set the tone ❌ Stop burning time 🔥 Start building momentum Ask instead: - Are we on track? - What’s in our way? - What needs escalation now? - How can I help unblock you? Then: - Solve what you can in a quick team “parking lot” with remaining time. - Take deeper issues offline - Keep the team moving forward Here’s the difference: 🟥 Bad Standup: “Finished a few tickets, had some calls, going to work on more today.” 🟩 Strategic Standup: “We’re 2 days behind on X. Waiting on legal approval. Might miss delivery unless unblocked by EOD.” One is noise. The other drives action. No one needs to know you had a dentist appointment. They need to know if the delivery date just slipped, and what help you need. If you’re only recapping daily tasks, you’re just hosting standup theater. Your team deserves better. A standup should save time, not waste it. Be the one who sets the pace. Not the one who schedules a daily group stall. Leadership = Clarity under pressure. Not comfort in routine. Let this one sting. Then fix your standup. Agree? Disagree? Still running status-only standups? Comment below👇. Let’s fix the ritual, not just repeat it. ♻️ Repost to level-up your project leadership skills. 🔔 Follow Elizabeth Dworkin for more like this. #projectmanagement #projectleadership #dailystandup