Effective status meetings can be patterned after the Scrum practice of "Daily Standup Meetings". These can be conducted over slack since we are not co-located.
Each Person Prepares the answers to the three questions. These questions are the most critical to focus the conversation and trigger coordination that is needed.
They also prevent the natural tendency to burro in on details.
Questions:
- What have I done since we met?
- What do I plan on doing next?
- What are the obstacles that stand in my way?
The #pangenome-browser Slack Channel is a great way to share your status. This also gives us a written copy from each person. Threads can be launched for coordinating on specific topics and can be linked directly to the status report that triggered them.
Since we are in many timezones the is an essential part of the overall workflow.
Additionally, we try to take notes of each meeting at Pangenome Browser Meeting Notes
The meeting can be used to add any explanation or find out if anyone else in the group can be of help.
The meeting time can not be used to solve problems or evaluate solutions, since this would certainly not get any further than the first speaker.
I recommend a round table format with each speaker having two minutes to share status. Then others will all be able to identify opportunities for connecting offline.