Daily standup questions to ensure effective team updates

Before beginning any kind of job, any organisation will hold some kind of talk in order to keep all of the team members informed and inspired to work. It might be a daily standup meeting held virtually for 15 minutes, or it could involve the use of an asynchronous standup bot. In either scenario, the following are the three questions that are posed during the daily standup the most frequently:

1.What did you do yesterday?
2.What will you do today?
3.Any blockers?

These are the kinds of questions that everyone asks, and if I'm being really honest, I find some of them to be rather monotonous. As a result, I'll tell you in this blog what other questions you can ask your team members to get the daily standup updates in an efficient way.

Note: I am sharing with you examples of what you can ask on an asynchronous standup bot like Sup Bot. You can, however, ask the questions verbally as well.

Add to Slack

Add to Teams

Add to Webex

Daily stand up questions

I'd like to encourage scrum masters or project managers to incorporate this one question about how their teammates are feeling today into their daily stand up questions. In the case of Sup, you can also use the mood tracker to assess the mood of your teammates and make necessary arrangements.

Before your team starts working, ask these questions.

1.How are you today?
2.What did you work on since the last standup?
3.What are you taking up next?
4.Is anything blocking your progress?

You can't ask a human resources professional the same questions that you would ask a software developer. You may have different concerns regarding the development of the hiring team compared to those of other teams; consequently, I suggest you use a different set of questions, such as the ones listed below.

1.How are you today?
2.How many interviews were you able to schedule yesterday?
3.How many candidates took the screening test yesterday?
4.How many candidates cleared the screening test yesterday?
5.Any blockers?

It is the same for the sales team as well. You are going to want to have a review of how the major deals are moving forward, the challenges that the team is encountering, the additional resources that are required, and the topics that need to be discussed. Such as

1.How are you today?
2.How many companies did you contact yesterday?
3.How many meetings did you schedule yesterday?

The most important thing to remember is that you should ask questions that are relevant to the department. You need to be specific about what questions you want to be answered, and make sure they are actionable.

Here are other questions that you can add to your daily standup questions:

1.Which goals did you complete yesterday?
2.Is it going well?
3.What's your to-do list for today?
4.Do you need help from anyone to complete these tasks?
5.What do you intend to accomplish before the next sync?
6.Are your planned tasks on track?

Questions to ask in other meetings

In this section, I will also offer some questions that you might consider asking the other members of your team during alternative types of meetings.

End of day report questions

Adding updates to the end-of-day report is preferred by many people because it provides written confirmation of the day's accomplishments. In addition, it is a good sign to inform your manager that you will be stepping away from work shortly.

Here is a template for the end of the day:

1.How was your day?
2.What did you complete?
3.What is pending?

Weekly status update questions

A stand-up meeting may often take place once every day or once per week. When you think that the daily standups may be too frequent, a weekly standup is something to try instead. In addition, it is strongly recommended that weekly meetings be held on Mondays rather than Fridays.

For your weekly status meetings(on Monday), please use this outline.

1.How was your weekend?
2.What did you finish last week?
3.What are this week's tasks?
4.Does the timeline need to be revised?
5.Any Blockers?

Timesheet questions

The following is an example of a timesheet template that can be used to record and maintain a record of the amount of time that your team has spent working.

1.How are you today?
2.How many hours did you spend?
3.What tasks did you work on?

Sprint retrospective questions

The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness. The retrospective should establish a safe platform for the team to give honest feedback on what's working, what may be improved, and what should change next time. The best thing is that the retrospective occurs immediately as a sprint ends, so the entire team may dig out new ideas.

The following is a list of questions that you may want to ask at a sprint retrospective meeting.

1.What should the team continue doing?
2.What should the team start doing?
3.What should the team stop doing?

Fun Questions

Your meeting will be more enjoyable thanks to these questions, and you'll learn something helpful about how the individuals on your team are doing. You may want to try these, there is no harm.

1.Which emoji describes you the best today?
2.One proud moment?
3.What do you feel thankful for?
4.Stress Levels (1-10)
5.To sum you up in one movie character, who would it be?

Conclusion

I hope the above questions are helpful, and yes, there is always room for improvement. See how the team reacts differently to your questions and make changes accordingly.

Frequently asked questions

1. What are the 3 common questions on stand-up?

The 3 common questions on a stand-up meeting are:

What did you do yesterday?
What will you do today?
Are there any blockers preventing progress?

2. How long is a daily stand-up?

Daily stand-ups must not exceed 15 minutes. If you have a large team and therefore end up crossing the 15-minute limit, try asynchronous stand-up meetings using tools like Sup Standup Bot.

3. How to speak in a standup call?

Standup meeting participants must take care to answer the three standup questions as concisely as possible. They must avoid any unnecessary details and answer honestly.