Smarter Week

How to automate it

How to automate “sit in alignment meetings with sales, support, engineering and leadership”

Here are 2 ways to spend less time on this, best first. Each comes with steps you can follow today.

60 min
typically, a few times a week
30%
of the time can be automated
Easy
to set up

Fix 1 of 2

Process fixBest fix

Replace alignment meetings with a short written proposal and comment deadline

Most alignment meetings exist to collect opinions. A one-page proposal with a comment deadline gets the same input, and you only meet on the points people actually disagree about.

Typically saves about 30% of the time20 min to set up
  1. 1Write a one-page proposal: problem, options, recommendation, what you need from each team.
  2. 2Share it with a clear deadline for comments (for example 48 hours).
  3. 3Resolve comments in the doc; list the open disagreements at the top.
  4. 4Hold a short meeting only for the open disagreements, then record the decision in the doc.
  5. 5Keep a decision log so the same debate does not restart next month.

Tools: Google Docs, Notion or Confluence

Fix 2 of 2

Process fix

Replace the status meeting with a written update

Everyone posts three lines in a shared thread before a set time; you only meet when something is blocked.

Typically saves about 60% of the time15 min to set up
  1. 1Agree a format: done, next, blocked.
  2. 2Create a channel or a thread that repeats every week.
  3. 3Ask everyone to post by a set time; the lead reads them and replies to the blockers.
  4. 4Keep a shorter meeting only for the blockers, or cancel it outright.

Tools: Slack, Teams or email

Who does this task

Roles in our library that list this as one of their common tasks. Each guide covers the rest of that role’s week.

Product managerUX / UI designerUX researcher

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