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Best Practice for Technical Meetings

Running effective, efficient, meaningful, and inclusive meetings is a highly valuable skill. It maximizes time, fosters a sense of belonging, and energizes the team. In early-stage startups, time is the scarcest commodity, and ineffective meetings are a common way to waste it.

Meetings with a Purpose​

Macro or Micro?​

Decide if the meeting will focus on macro (big-picture strategy) or micro (detailed execution) topics. Combining both can lead to tangents. While both are important, early-stage startups often fall into the trap of diving deep into micro details—usually because they are "easy." It's tempting to engage in lengthy discussions about specific features or technical details, but if the goal is to prioritize 20 user stories and you're stuck discussing just one for half the meeting, you're probably waffling.

Avoid Meetings for Status Updates​

In a fast-moving startup, meetings should not just serve as a way to report on progress. Use asynchronous tools like Slack, Notion, or your project management system to share status updates. Meetings should be reserved for decision-making, problem-solving, or alignment.

Create a No Meeting Zone​

Consider setting aside certain times or days as “no meeting” zones to allow for deep work. Engineers need significant uninterrupted time to solve technical problems, avoid scheduling meetings that break the flow of high-priority work.

Regularly Challenge the Need for Meetings​

In early-stage startups, it’s crucial to continuously assess whether meetings are truly necessary and adding value. Every few weeks, review if meetings could be improved, shortened, or eliminated entirely. Can the issue be resolved with a quick message or decision instead? Founder engineers should take the lead in questioning the need for each meeting and cutting down on recurring meetings that no longer serve a clear purpose, while also soliciting feedback from the team to refine the process.

Meeting Techniques

Set an Agenda​

A meeting without an agenda is just a chat. Creating an agenda forces you to focus on the meeting’s purpose. As you prepare it, you might realize you could just ask one person a quick question on Slack, or you could reduce the invite list, allowing others to use their time more effectively. The agenda should cover the key points that need to be addressed.

Set time limits for agenda items to ensure that discussions don’t drag on unnecessarily. Founder engineers need to be decisive, and timeboxing agenda items encourages focused conversation. If a topic needs more time, it can be scheduled for another meeting or dealt with offline.

Define the Role of Each Participant​

Clarify why each person is invited and what role they play in the meeting. This helps everyone stay focused and avoids inviting people who aren’t needed. Define roles such as decision-makers, contributors, or listeners, and make it clear from the start what each person’s input is expected to be.

Prepare Ahead of Time​

Encourage participants to come prepared. Share relevant documents, data, or proposals beforehand so the meeting time is spent discussing and deciding, not presenting or reviewing materials for the first time. Founder engineers often lead by example—if you come prepared, the rest of the team is likely to follow.

Embrace “Disagree and Commit”​

In early-stage startups, it’s important to make quick decisions and move fast. If there’s disagreement but a decision has to be made, use the “disagree and commit” approach. This means participants express their disagreement but commit to supporting the decision once it’s made, allowing the team to move forward without endless debate.

Ensure Psychological Safety​

For meetings to be inclusive, everyone needs to feel safe speaking up, even if their ideas are unconventional or they disagree with others. Founder engineers can set the tone by modeling openness to feedback, encouraging questions, and making it clear that different viewpoints are valued.

Define Clear Outcomes​

Link the outcomes to the agenda. A meeting should drive something forward. The outcomes should include tasks with assignees. Whenever possible, track these tasks in your project management tool to ensure they’re prioritized alongside the team’s normal workload.

Take Notes​

This is especially important if you’ll be implementing the decisions made during the meeting. When capturing requirements for a user story, take notes—preferably directly within the user story, so the information is shared in the appropriate place for the entire team. This helps ensure that the correct requirements are delivered the first time, preventing the need for multiple follow-up meetings.

In early-stage startups, there’s rarely a dedicated project manager or technical architect. Taking ownership of note-taking is a highly valuable contribution to the team.

Rotate Meeting Leadership​

It can be helpful to rotate who leads meetings, especially in smaller teams. This fosters a sense of shared responsibility and allows junior team members to develop leadership skills. For founder engineers, this also helps avoid the trap of micromanaging every meeting.

Action-Driven Follow-Ups​

After the meeting, ensure that follow-ups are action-driven and not just summaries. Outline specific next steps, who’s responsible, and deadlines. Founder engineers often juggle many roles, so clear action items help ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

Encourage Equal Participation​

Dedicate time for everyone to contribute. Ensure each participant is asked individually for their input, or, at the very least, encourage the use of the "raise hand" feature in Zoom or similar tools. This ensures everyone’s voice is heard, especially quieter team members.

Respect Time Boundaries and the Five-Minute Rule​

Respect everyone’s time by sticking to the allocated meeting duration and ensuring discussions stay focused. If meetings consistently run long, it's often a sign of waffling—clear agendas and time limits help avoid this. Additionally, apply the "Five-Minute Rule": if a key participant hasn’t joined within the first five minutes, cancel or reschedule the meeting. This prevents wasted time and keeps things efficient.

Meeting Etiquette​

  • Avoid Over-Talking: Be mindful of how much you're speaking during meetings. If you find yourself giving lengthy responses to simple questions, try to condense your answers. Being able to summarise is a superpower.
  • Avoid Interruptions: Allow people to finish speaking before jumping in.
  • Remote/Onsite Mix: If some participants are remote and others are onsite, treat everyone as if they’re remote. This ensures an even playing field for all.
  • Webcams On: Turn on your webcam. It promotes engagement and makes communication more personal.

For more best practices on inclusive meetings, check out Google's guide on inclusive meetings.