Replacing the status meeting
Keeping everyone in the loop is key to shipping great work.
Many companies try to keep folks up-to-date with status meetings, sometimes known as stand-ups, but attending daily or weekly meetings lead to disrupted workflows. And in some cases, they can also lead companies to under or over-communicate internally so no one really knows (or can follow) what's really going on.
At Basecamp, we use a Project called "What works" to radiate information about what we’re working on so everyone stays informed without the meetings.
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Checking in
The Automatic Check-in tool takes the place of daily status updates weekly status/stand-up meetings. We communicate a ton of detail about what’s going on across the company without ever having to pull someone away from their work and into a physical or chat room.
Every weekday at 4:30pm, Basecamp automatically asks everyone our company, “What have you worked on?” And when people have a free moment, they post their answer. The answers are visible to everyone in the company, so everyone knows what’s happening without having to follow dozens of separate projects or conversations.
Basecamp also asks, “What do you plan on working on this week?” every Monday at 9am so teams can get an understanding of everyone's workload/goals for the week.
Updating teams
Team leads post Kickoffs and Heartbeats on the "What works" Message Board. They give the whole company a clear view of what’s happening across teams with little disruption that can be referenced at any time.
Kickoffs summarize the work a team has scheduled for the upcoming cycle, and they’re due the second Friday of the cooldown period.
Heartbeats summarize and celebrate the work teams completed during the previous cycle, and the work described in the cycle heartbeat should line up (more or less) with the work you scheduled in the cycle Kickoff. These are submitted on the first Friday of the cooldown period.
There's no specific guideline about how to write a Kickoff or Heartbeat. People write in their own style, some follow other people’s leads.
Here are a few Heartbeat examples:
And here's what an individual Heartbeat looks like, along with comments from others:
Messages are automatically sent out to everyone in the company. People can then comment, ask detailed follow-up questions, and the discussions are kept nice and neat as separate threads so they’re easy to read now and easy to refer back to later. They are especially useful for bringing employees up to speed on how we work and how we share our work.
With each Kickoff and Heartbeat as it's own unique self-contained message thread, people can post follow-ups questions, request more detail, and discuss things in context without the conversation spilling over into other conversations. Paired with Automatic check-ins, it's a powerful way to keep everyone at your company in the loop.