How to Host An Effective Virtual Standup with RemoteHQ
The way we work is changing. There is less time and desire for synchronous communication. So, the time spent on video calls needs to be effective and efficient. This is where a virtual standup comes into play.
However, have we perfected the remote standup? We don't think so. For starters, remote employees aren't even standing when on the call 😉 . There's more, too.
Problems with Existing Daily Stand-Ups
Before the standup meeting
If you're the leader of the meeting, you know the set-up struggle. You have to value the time of your whole team (especially when your team is spread across different timezones), but you also need to make sure you’re covering what needs to be covered. Thinking through what documents should be open for discussion, having your notes ready, and more. It's a similar thought process, "Should I join 5-minutes early to set everything up or should I try doing it on the fly while people are joining?" It's not a lot of time, but it is still valuable time spent doing a tedious, repetitive task.
During the standup meeting
How many of you have had to ask, "Hey, can you stop screen sharing? I want to show something" or heard this in your status meeting. Whether on Zoom, Google Hangouts, or Microsoft Teams, with most video conferencing tools available now it's almost like a game of hot potato where control of the screen is jumping from one person to the next! The impact is disrupted conversations and time wasted in transitions.
Even more irksome is that you're only able to see your remote team members screen but not touch. If you want to do anything, you have to verbally direct where the cursor should be moved. "A little more to the right. No not that button, the blue one. Okay, now can you hover over the icon there?" Ugh!
The above is assuming that you're even able to clearly see the screen being shared. You're always having to cross your fingers that the other person has strong bandwidth and good connection so their screen isn't pixelated. If it is, well then you're out of luck my friend.
Also, talk about the possibility of an embarrassing message popping up when you're sharing your desktop. That would be awkward! Rather than having to constantly remember to switch on you 'do not disturb,' wouldn't it be nice if privacy was always ensured?
With all of these issues with screen sharing, you may simply say, "Forgot it; I'm not going to rely on the screen my teammate is sharing. I'll open the window/application myself." The con with that though is now you're furiously toggling between browser and application windows during the video call. All of a sudden you have too many things open and you've lost context!
After the standup meeting
Beyond viewing who accepted the calendar invite, there is no call log of who actually attended the meeting. As you reflect back on a stand-up that you believed everyone was in attendance of, it turns out that last minute a team member wasn't able to join. Now this person has been left in the dark because it wasn't captured that she wasn't there.
This concept of meeting leave-behinds applies to work that was discussed as well. The web browser, documents or files shown via screen share are lost after the meeting ends. Of course, you can designate a remote team member to follow-up with all items discussed but is that the best use of their time? Probably not.
The pain of this only increases for recurring meetings like remote team stand-ups. There is no statefulness. With no automated record of previous interactions, more time is wasted remembering what was said when by who.
The next standup meeting
It's simply a rinse and repeat of the tedious tasks and annoyances listed above. How can you get your entire team out of this seemingly endless cycle?
Our Solution
Enter RemoteHQ. Our meeting rooms act as a virtual war room. Reclaim the time you spend prepping, transitioning, and following up. Abstract all of these complexities with one URL to access and one place to work.
Before the standup meeting
Avoid the set-up time all together with our app persistence! Automatically carry over apps across recurring sessions. So the next time you join the meeting room, the persisted apps will open immediately. This way, it's super easy to pick up right where you left off. And no one has to spend time prepping the meeting room 🙌
During the standup meeting
Screen share? We've moved on from that. Have you heard of Shared Browser? It's a web browser that lives in the cloud and gives individuals the opportunity to co-browse and co-edit together. Stop asking for control, begin taking action yourself, and avoid any pixelation.
In addition to serving as the place your virtual team talks, RemoteHQ can also be the place your team works too. With apps integrations such as Google Docs , Trello , and Miro , there's no need to toggle between web browsers and applications. Bring everything into RemoteHQ and keep your focus by working & communicating in one place.
After the standup meeting
On the room dashboard, workspace members can easily view who attended each meeting as their avatar will appear next to the session log. It's another verification of who was present during the meeting in addition to the calendar rsvp.
For further detail, within our session history, RemoteHQ automatically captures meeting artifacts. These include the timeline of meeting attendees, any notes taken, chat messages sent, files uploaded, and more. By leveraging this feature instead of having someone manually gather and share takeaways, time will be saved and takeaways will be documented in an easily searchable archive.
The next standup meeting
Easily join again through the workspace or single meeting URL. It's easy to remember where to go for what as room names follow the format: rooms.remotehq.com/workspace_name/room_name
If you persisted apps for your stand-up, they'll automatically open for you and RemoteHQ will be ready to capture any meeting artifacts. This way, you can forget the pre and post meeting work 😅
Discuss and work in RemoteHQ - a platform that'll give your remote team focus and control.
