From Dull to Dynamic: A Standup Format Shift

When I first started working in Socialbakers back in 2019, I was part of a newly formed scrum team. The team consists of a scrum master, 5 software engineers, 1 QA and myself; the product owner. None of us have worked together and almost everyone was fairly new to the company, longest being just about a year in. Everyone was super stoked at the beginning, and we named our team “Pirates”.

Like any other scrum teams, Pirates also started the day with a daily standup that was scheduled for 15 minutes. We opted for probably the most common format where each engineer would go around one by one updating the team on what they have worked on and any blockers they were facing. Early on, we identified these problems with our standup:

• Engineers were providing daily updates of all the different things they were doing
• No progress visibility on user stories
• Product owner was unable to match engineers sync with user story
• Stand up almost always exceeded the 15 minutes scheduled time

So, after a few retros discussing this issue, we decided to experiment with a different style of standup. Instead of individuals being the focal point of the ceremony, the user stories became the centre of attention. So now, instead of everyone taking turns saying what they’ve done the previous day, we actually talked about the user stories, starting from the work lane closest to “Done” all the way to the ones “In Progress”.

The results were almost instantaneous. Since we were actually talking about the User Stories now, blockers were identified or highlighted much sooner, leading to quicker resolution times. It also helped me, the Product Owner, to understand better the state and progress of a specific story as I now have the full context of a specific discussion. And to top it all off, we always managed to complete standup within the allocated 15 minutes.

Looking back, I realised that this simple format change had a much bigger impact than we initially thought. It transformed our standups from a dull routine into a collaborative experience. The new format emphasised the sprint goal, which was a team commitment. This shift in focus got everyone thinking as a team instead of as individuals. Everyone was now accountable for the progress of the sprint, instead of just their individual tasks. This I believe, was the biggest takeaway from the experiment.

So, if you’re part of a new team and find that your standups are dull and ineffective, try switching up the format. At the very least, they’re no longer dull. But who knows, you might have started a shift in mindset among your team members.

Is this a magical silver bullet? No. But it’s a good first step on the road to a better environment and a more effective team.

Do share your thoughts, feedback and experiences in the comments below. I would love to hear how y’all are doing standups in your team.