The Great Standup Show

It’s 9:59 AM. Your caffeine levels are almost adequate (and you’re ready to conquer the world), suddenly, the calendar pings - “Daily Standup”. This gives different feelings to different people. You join, ask how everyone’s doing, give your update, listen a debate for 15 mins (just to resolve it offline) and close the call with relief of completing first call of the day.

Standups are like modern art, everyone has an opinion about them, mostly defer from others. Nobody knows if they’re doing it right, but all pretend to understand what’s going on. Yet we all keep showing up, day after day to perform the ritual.

The Anatomy of Every Standup

No matter the team or the project, certain patterns emerge.

1. The Speed Talker - Speeds through updates like they’re on 2X playback

2. Novelist - Share every details - from last standup to today 9:59 AM

3. No Blockers Person - Claims to be smooth sailing. Hours later, DMs you. “Hey, I got a quick question which totally not a blocker”
   (By the way, this is me. Shhh… 🤫 , don’t tell my manager)

4. The Silent One - Their turn comes, a brief “Same as yesterday”

The Paradox of Standup Psychology

We've created a fascinating paradox:

• A meeting designed to save time that often wastes it

• A sync meant to remove blockers that people are too rushed to even mention

• A talk needed to track project deliverables often gives false sense of progress

• A status update where everyone pays attention only to what precedes their turn

Signs your Standups need Attention

1. Information Gap

   • Updates surprise people who should’ve known earlier

   • Important details consistently emerge in “after-standup” discussions
     

2. Silent Participants

   • When most participants contribute little to no updates, leaving others unsure of their progress
     

3. Run over scheduled time

   • 15 min meeting consistently stretches to 30 or more

   • Such Run-Over Syndrome often eats productivity
     

4. Tickets Spillover Chaos

   • False progress often leads to tickets spillover every sprints

   • It’s a clear sign blockers aren’t being address or efforts aren’t estimated appropriately.
     

5. Everything is going great

   • Nature of (most) tech projects is neither simple nor perfect.

   • Every update is smooth, every ticket is on track, no blockers, no risks. Sounds ideal, right? Maybe too ideal.

Making Standups Work (Really Work)

Right-Size your Sync

• Some teams thrive with daily standups

• Others do better with twice-weekly syncs

• Key here is to honest evaluation of your team’s needs

Refine Status Updates Format

• Assess if “What did i do yesterday, going to do today and any blockers” really helping?

• Focus on project features rather than individuals

• Highlight dependencies among tickets

Focus on Forward Movement

• Less “what I did” and more “what’s blocking progress”

• Highlight decisions needed from other team members

• Keep past updates brief unless directly relevant to today’s work

Adopt Practical Tweaks

• Rotate Facilitator

• Adjust Frequency and Timing

• Experiment with formats (async, sync, hybrid)

Ask these questions to improve

The best standup is the one that serves your team’s specific needs. These questions might help to make it effective and contribute towards project’s deliverables.

• What problems are we trying to solve with our standup?

• Is our current format serving those goals?

• What's one small experiment we could try for a week?

The Bottom Line

The goal isn't to have a perfect standup; it's to have perfect clarity on what's moving your project forward and what's standing in its way.

I’d love to hear your standup stories — what’s worked, what hasn’t and the quirkiest rituals you’ve seen. Share your thoughts on LinkedIn and 𝕏  

(Honestly, I’m always open to discussions and feedback — whether it’s about standups, tech topics or just exchanging ideas. Feel free to reach out; there’s so much we can learn from each other)

And if you find this newsletter useful and you want to contribute to sustain and evolve it, please think to "buy a coffee" 

Thanks for reading,
Kelvin
TechParadox.dev