As a meeting organizer, I want to provide meeting attendees with a clear, concise statement of our purpose and outcome, so that they understand the purpose and importance of the meeting

If you were to perform an audit of the meetings on your calendar, how many of them would have an agenda and a description? Of those that did have a description and agenda, how many of them provide a clear indication of the outcome of the meeting, who benefits from the meeting, and the clear steps we’ll follow along the way?

If you’re like me, most of the meetings on your calendar fail to meet these criteria. Sometimes, that’s because we’re busy and juggling multiple priorities. Other times, it’s because we didn’t put the preparation in for the meeting.

Meetings are painful, but they don’t have to be. Better meetings starts with preparation. And you can showcase your preparation to the attendees with the first thing they will see about the meeting: the meeting invite.

The best way I’ve found to capture the outcome and other important details of a meeting is to frame it like a user story, as suggested by Matt Philip and others over a decade ago. The user story format is one that most teams are familiar with and if it captures enough background and context for development of complex software, can we make it work for complex, collaborative meetings?

The basic user story format is:

As a {Who}, I want to {Outcome}, so that {Purpose}

Who

In our meeting as a user story, who could refer to 2 different groups; the group of attendees or the group that ultimately benefits from the meeting in the first place.

The simplest approach is to find a name to call the group of attendees. This is simple when we’re working with a development team. The next level approach, and a powerful technique, is to consider and name who benefits from the meeting. The audience benefits in some fashion, but who else beyond the audience? Leadership and stakeholders can benefit, but where possible, I like to consider the meeting from the customer’s perspective and frame the meeting in terms of how it benefits them.

Outcome

When we’re done with this meeting, what will we have achieved together? Sometimes, this is framed more of an output, such as a list of activites This approach has its place, but where possible I try to capture how we’re impacting the ‘who’ with the work that we are doing. Try to consider beyond the superficial surface activities if you can - those can always be captured further down in the description of the meeting.

Purpose

Purpose is the ‘so what’ portion of the user story. Why does this meeting matter? As an attendee, why do I care about the outcome and the person who benefits from it? This isn’t the same as ‘what’s in it for me’, but really more what’s in it for the borader organization. How does what we do in this meeting and achieving the outcome help us collectively achieve a broader goal?

Examples

Here’s a couple examples for a few common meetings:

Daily Standup

• As a team, we want to review what we accomplished yesterda, what we plan to accomplish today, and what blockers we have so that we can stay aligned on the goal for the team’s sprint.

This format lists outputs instead of outcomes. A next level user story for a daily standup would be

• As a team, we want to ensure we are aligned on our plan for the day so that we can monitor our progress on our sprint goal and pivot if necessary.

Sprint Review

• As a stakeholder, I want to review the Team’s progress, provide feedback, and adjust the backlog so that we ensure we’re developing the most valuable solution for our customers.

One on One

• As a team member, I want to meet with my manager to discuss current challenges, understand priorities, and talk about career advancement, so that I can grow and better serve the organization and customer.

Closing thoughts

Writing meeting descriptions in the user story is just the first step. A user story ussually contains acceptance criteria which further defines what is in scope for the user story. We can apply this to our meetings too, giving ourselves and the attendees a clear defintion of when the meeting is over. Approaching a meeting like a user story can help keep a meeting on point while giving us a clear purpose and outcome to work towards.