The daily standup meeting made sense when teams were in the same room. For remote teams, it is a relic that wastes time without delivering value. Teams that have switched to async updates report the same thing: they spend less time in meetings and have better visibility.
The Problem with Remote Standups
A remote standup is a video call where each team member reports what they did yesterday, what they are doing today, and what is blocking them. The format is borrowed from Scrum, where it works in person. For remote teams, it has two problems.
First, the standup requires everyone to be online at the same time — usually at the start of the day. For teams across time zones, this means some people are starting their day early or late to accommodate the standup. This is a tax on everyone's schedule for a meeting that could be async.
Second, the three questions format produces information that should already be visible on the board. If a team member has updated their cards, the PM can see what they did yesterday and what they are working on today without asking. The standup becomes a ritual to confirm what should already be visible.
Async Updates Work Better
Teams that switch to async updates post their standup information to the board at the start of the day. The format is simple: what you did yesterday, what you are doing today, any blockers. Instead of a thirty-minute meeting, this takes five minutes to write and five minutes to read.
The PM reviews the updates and identifies blockers before the team's working day starts. If there is a blocker that requires discussion, a focused sync call happens — five minutes for the people who need to be there, not thirty minutes for the whole team.
Async updates replace the standup information exchange without replacing the collaboration that a standup sometimes enables.
How to Run Async Standups in Zoobbe
Zoobbe boards support async updates through task comments and card updates. At the start of the day, each team member updates their cards and posts a comment with their standup update. The PM reviews the board and the comments together.
Zoobbe time tracking shows what each team member worked on yesterday. The board shows what is in progress. The comments show the standup update. The information that a standup meeting communicates is all visible on the board without a meeting.
Zoobbe is free for teams up to fifteen. Standard at 4.99 per seat adds unlimited collaborators.