Ten Minutes Before Work, Every Day

Or, as they call it, “Stand-up meeting” or “daily SCRUM”. Which, for a product manager and team leader shouldn’t be new at all. But if you were not either, it might come as something new and, I might say, interesting.

As a freelancer and, afterwards, owner of a business, I got pretty good at scheduling and prioritizing my own tasks. I needed to, since there is no one looking over your shoulder to force me work or do anything other than wandering around aimlessly on Facebook (or Digg, if you take into consideration the time frame: 2008-2009).

Still, since starting MavenHut, one of my co-founders, Cristi, “forced” the entire team into 10 minutes stand-up meetings every morning. And while it didn’t necessarily improve my own productivity (my own “to do” list is more detailed than the one I present at a stand-up meeting), it helped me understand better what my team is working on, what their issues are.

Because this is what SCRUM basically does (in my experience):
– it forces you to be really to the point in explaining what you are working on;
– it allows everyone in the team to understand what you are working on. It’s really helpful, because they can also pitch in with suggestions;
– it allows you to see what the others are working on and understand if their work impact you directly in that specific cycle.

So, if you don’t do it, try it. Read here the basics and try it with your team, your co-founders. Heck, even with your cat, if you have no one else available. It creates a great habit, that will surely help you, in time.

P.S.: do not, I repeat, do not ask the cat for her SCRUM report. You might get something like “sleep. human petting. eat. sleep. sand. eat. sleep. human petting. sleep. wake up human in the middle of the night”. And this will really get you down :))