A stand-up meeting is a short, daily meeting (usually around 15 minutes) where the team gathers to discuss progress, identify roadblocks, and prioritise work for the day.
The typical questions asked during a stand-up meeting follow the “Three Cs” format:
- Completed: What did you do yesterday?
- Committed: What will you do today?
- Challenges or concerns: What roadblocks are you facing, and do you need help?
In addition to the Three Cs, other questions might be asked depending on the specific project or goals of the team, and these might include:
- What are your biggest risks today?
- Do you need any feedback or support on your tasks?
- Is there anything we can do to help you achieve your goals today?
- Are there any dependencies we need to be aware of?
- Did anything change since yesterday that affects our plans?
Alternative questions to ask
Whilst there is nothing wrong with the Three Cs, you could try some of the following questions to see whether it works better for your team and helps them to be more engaged.
- What are we doing today to help the team achieve its goals?
- Where could we be helped today to progress what we’re working on?
- Does everyone have what they need to focus on our top priority item?
- What could we finish today if we pulled together as a team?
- How could we finish X item and who can help with it?
- Does anyone need an extra pair of eyes on something?
- What small change would help our team deliver our current goal?
- What successes do I want to share? Where should we be celebrating?
- What learnings do I want others to benefit from?
- What help could you most use that you haven’t asked for?
- Where are you stuck?
- Who has a blocker that needs resolving?
- Have we identified any new risks?
- What’s in our control about this issue, and what’s not?
- On a scale from 1 to 10, how full is your plate right now?
- Who could use some help?
- Who do you need help from?
- Does anyone need another pair of eyes on something?
- What help do you need to make this action item happen?
- Who has some time to help someone else?
- What is the outcome you’re looking for?
- What do you need?
Food-themed questions
- Where do we need to chew something over?
- What burning in our teams’ oven?
- What ‘recipes’ could we share with the team?
- What tips or tricks might help us progress?
- What’s our missing ingredient as a team?
- What do we need to complete our work?
- What would add a bit of spice to our work today?
- What could we break into more digestible chunks?
- What are we hungry for more of?
- What’s consuming you?
- What could we let marinate for a few days so we can focus?
