Why We Should All Do Daily Standup

Over my 3+ years as a product manager across more than seven teams, I've tried different approaches and learned valuable lessons along the way. I've worked with teams that hold standups every day, three times a day, once a week, three times a week, and even teams that don't do standups at all.

Daily standups didn't just appear out of nowhere. They have their roots in Scrum, which is one of the frameworks used to implement Agile methodology. You can explore further how Scrum was created by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber and later refined, particularly in the 2010s.

Many people often confuse Agile, Scrum, sprints, and standups, so it's worth clarifying the relationship.

Think of Agile as the philosophy, the mindset and set of values. Scrum is a framework that applies Agile (others include Kanban, XP, and SAFe). To successfully apply Scrum, certain roles, events, and artefacts must exist. Our focus here is one of those events: the Daily Standup.

Traditionally, each Scrum team member answers three questions:

1. What did I do yesterday?
2. What will I do today?
3. Are there any blockers? If yes, what are they?

I'll pause here to address some common misconceptions about daily standups:

1. It must always happen in the morning. While this is common, teams can choose any time that works best, as long as it's consistent.
2. Standups are for resolving blockers or fixing bugs. This is incorrect. Standups are not problem-solving sessions. Blockers should be taken offline and resolved in separate conversations.
3. Standups are a chore. In reality, they help the Product Owner (usually the Product Manager) understand the true state of work, plan effectively, and confidently respond to stakeholder questions.
4. Large organisations should run one standup for all teams. This is a mistake. Daily standups should be held at the individual Scrum team level.

Daily standups offer several clear benefits:

1. Coordination and alignment. Everyone knows what others are working on, reducing duplication and improving collaboration.
2. Early identification of obstacles. Blockers surface early, allowing the team to act quickly instead of letting issues linger.
3. Accountability and momentum. Daily updates create a rhythm that encourages steady progress and ownership.
4. Team cohesion. Regular interaction strengthens relationships and keeps distributed teams connected.
5. Quick course correction. Misunderstandings or wrong assumptions are caught early, saving time and effort.
6. Transparency. Progress is visible to everyone without micromanagement or constant check-ins.

That said, the effectiveness of standups depends on keeping them short and focused. Once they become lengthy or turn into problem-solving meetings, they lose their value.

1. Choose a convenient time and stick to it consistently.
2. Keep it short, 10 to 15 minutes max.
3. Team members should only speak about yesterday's work, today's plan, and blockers.
4. The Scrum Master should ensure tasks are properly prioritized.
5. Team members should always pick tasks based on priority and aim to finish one before starting another when priorities are similar.
6. Daily standups should never replace open communication on tickets, Slack, or other channels.

Now to the big question: should standups be daily? Oh yes. Standups should happen every 24 hours to fully enjoy their benefits. And as mentioned earlier, Scrum teams should still communicate openly outside of standups.