# Case: the 90-minute stand-up > Two weeks of meeting-audit data show where the daily stand-up's 90 minutes go. Redesign it for a team across two time zones. - Course: [From Specialist to Manager: Your First Year Leading a Team](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager.md) - Module: Meetings and communication - Lesson 20/32, ~38 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/the-90-minute-stand-up-case ## The meeting that grew **Alex Tutor:** End of May. The daily stand-up starts at 9:00 Kyiv time, 7:00 for the two coordinators two hours behind, and it rarely ends before 10:30. You logged two weeks of it, segment by segment. **Olha:** It used to be ten minutes. Now it's where my morning goes, and the queue piles up while we talk. **Sofia:** But it's the one place everyone hears everything. If I cut it, won't people lose track? **Alex Tutor:** Let the data answer that. Start with what could be read instead of heard: the segments marked could_be_written. **Dataset (CSV):** [Meeting audit, 10–21 May 2027](https://productovi.com/datasets/from-specialist-to-manager/the-90-minute-stand-up-case/klasna-meeting-audit-may.csv) Ten working days. The stand-up is logged by segment; the weekly team call and refund sync with tutor operations as whole meetings. people_needed is how many attendees the segment actually needed; could_be_written is 1 if it could be a written update. - `date`: Day of the meeting - `meeting`: stand_up, team_call or refund_sync - `segment`: status_round, blockers, problem_solving, announcements, waiting_and_connection, or whole_meeting - `start_kyiv`: Start time, Kyiv time - `minutes`: Length of the segment or meeting - `attendees`: People on the call - `people_needed`: Attendees the segment actually needed - `could_be_written`: 1 if it could be a written update, else 0 - `decisions_made`: Decisions made - `action_items`: Agreed next steps - `action_items_with_owner_and_date`: Of those, with one owner and a date > **Exercise:** What **share of all stand-up minutes** over the two weeks was in segments that could have been a written update? In %, two decimals. ## What it costs **Sofia:** Almost half could be read. And the status round alone is 298 minutes in two weeks. **Alex Tutor:** Now the cost to the team. A minute of a seven-person call is seven minutes of people's time. Work out how many person-hours a week the stand-up takes. **Alex Tutor:** Use minutes × attendees for each row, add them up, and remember the audit covers two weeks. **Iryna:** In the exam peak, that number had better be small. > **Exercise:** How many **person-hours per week** does the stand-up cost the team (minutes × attendees, summed, converted to hours, per week)? ## Where decisions really happen **Alex Tutor:** Start with outcomes. The stand-up made 17 decisions in its 15 hours. Work out the rate. > **Exercise:** Over the two weeks the stand-up ran 900 minutes (15 hours) and made **17 decisions**. How many decisions per hour is that? Two decimals. **Alex Tutor:** Next, problem-solving: 335 minutes, 37.22% of the stand-up, usually needing two people, three at most. The other four or five listen. In total, 40.10% of the stand-up's person-minutes go to people that segment didn't need. **Alex Tutor:** And outcomes: 17 decisions in 15 hours, 14 of them in the blockers segment, which takes only 107 minutes. The team call makes 3.33 decisions an hour, the refund sync 4. **Sofia:** And action items? We agree on things every morning. **Alex Tutor:** 33 of them, and only 10 with an owner and a date: 30.30%. All 12 from the other two meetings have both. > **Exercise:** Which reading of the audit is best supported by the data? ## Status in writing **Alex Tutor:** If status moves to writing, it has to be easy to write and easy to scan. Three short lines, posted before a fixed time, in one thread. **Olha:** And readable by the two who start at 7:00 their time. Post by 8:45 Kyiv, they read it with coffee. **Sofia:** What about someone without power that morning? **Alex Tutor:** They post one line from their phone when they can, and their buddy covers the queue. The thread waits; the families don't. **Alex Tutor:** Check your design for the written status against this. > **Exercise:** The status round moves to writing. Which setup works for a team across two time zones, with outages? **Alex Tutor:** Now price the redesign. What does a 15-minute stand-up give back each week? > **Exercise:** Today the stand-up costs **52.5 person-hours a week**. A redesigned stand-up would run **15 minutes, five days a week, for the same seven people**. How many person-hours a week would it save? **Alex Tutor:** Put it together: which changes fit what the audit shows? > **Exercise:** Which changes fit what the audit shows? Select all that apply. > **Exercise:** Write the **template for the written status** that replaces the status round: the three lines each person posts, where and by when (Kyiv time), and one rule for days with an outage. ## A shape for the new stand-up **Alex Tutor:** Now the meeting itself. A 15-minute stand-up for the same seven people would cost 8.75 person-hours a week instead of 52.5: 43.75 hours back, every week of the peak. **Alex Tutor:** What goes in? Blockers, read from the written status. Who needs whom today. Problem-solving moves to a follow-up call for just the people involved, booked before the stand-up ends. **Sofia:** And the 7:00 start for two of us? **Alex Tutor:** Move it, or rotate it. 10:00 Kyiv is 8:00 for them, and the morning queue is already covered by then. Ask the team; it's their morning too. ## Your redesign **Olha:** Before you send it, post the draft in the thread for a day. Some of us have opinions about 10:00. **Alex Tutor:** Good. Write it for the team: what changes, why, with the numbers, and how you'll check after two weeks whether it worked. **Iryna:** Copy me. If it frees 40 hours a week in the peak, I want to know how. **Sofia:** Format, time, roles, the written status, follow-ups, action items, outages, and the review date. > **Exercise:** Write the redesign of the daily stand-up for the Support team. > **Key ideas** > > - Audit a meeting by segment: the 90-minute **stand-up** cost 52.5 person-hours a week, 7.5 hours per person. > - 43.00% was status and announcements that could be read; move them to **asynchronous communication** with a short template, one place and a deadline that respects both time zones. > - 37.22% was problem-solving for two or three people; 40.10% of person-minutes went to people the segment didn't need. Move it to follow-up calls for the people involved. > - The useful core was blockers: 14 of 17 decisions in 107 minutes. A 15-minute stand-up keeps that core and returns 43.75 person-hours a week. > - End every meeting with **action items** that have one owner and a date (only 30.30% did); plan for outages; let the team shape the draft; review the trial with the same numbers. **Alex Tutor:** That's May. In June the peak ends, and the pressure shows up somewhere else: between people. - Previous lesson: [Bad news up, decisions down](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/bad-news-up-decisions-down.md) - Next lesson: [Where conflicts come from](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/where-conflicts-come-from.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.