PM Tips: Leading Meetings

Quick Tip!

Typically, the PM for a project leads weekly meetings, but as outlined in the JPM/PM responsibilities article, this can vary from project to project.

If you find yourself about to lead a Digital Corps project meeting, keep reading to learn the basics.

Helpful Staff for this Topic

Meeting Structure

At the Digital Corps, there are several types of internal project meetings. Weekly project meetings are the most common. These 30-minute meetings include the students, JPM and PM assigned to the project, as well as relevant staff.

JPMs and PMs work together to lead meetings and this leadership can differ project-to-project. Discuss the expected structure of a meeting beforehand.

Ask yourself:

Does the ____ team need to come today?
Could this meeting be a Slack update?
With these staff members out today, should we still meet?
Is there too much to cover? Should we schedule a breakout meeting for ___?

Engagement

The Digital Corps gets stuff done! This means there can be A LOT of meetings. How do you keep your team engaged and actively participating?

There are many tips and tricks for both in-person and remote meetings, but they can be boiled down to these key ideas:

Monitor contribution; if someone is quiet, ask them a prompting question.
Bring an air of positivity to the meeting!
Limit distractions

Agendas

Agendas need to be posted at least two hours before the corresponding meeting. By posting them early, the project team has time to review them and it provides time for staff to check for missing or incorrect information.

Read the “Creating Agendas with OneNote” article to review the step-by-step process to create meeting agendas.

NOTE: Try to organize agenda items by priority–what needs to be discussed today and what can wait?

Especially if you’re pm-ing a long-term project, it can help with engagement to reorder team check-ins. For example, don’t always start with video updates and end with development updates.

Breakout Meetings

Breakout meetings are one-off events that allow for a more detailed discussion of the topics covered in the weekly meeting. They are scheduled, as needed, by the JPM and/or PM. At least one student must post a brief update in the project’s Slack channel afterward.

These meetings should happen when a task requires extra help. Perhaps someone is running into an issue and needs someone to help troubleshoot with them. Maybe there’s a big client update and the staff needs to regroup.

Communicate frequently with everyone on the team to make sure that breakouts are happening when they’re needed.

NOTE: JPMs and PMs do not need to attend these breakouts unless students need clarification on client needs or task requirements.

Excused and Unexcused Absences

There are many reasons team members may need to miss a meeting. The key consideration is the absences must be discussed in advance. Then it is ok for a PM to excuse someone from a meeting. The conversation can start with a JPM but they will need to confirm with their PM.

Additionally, there might be times when a JPM or PM notices that one or more members are not needed for an upcoming meeting. To respect their time, PMs can notify these individuals in advance that they can miss a meeting.

However, there are times when someone is unexpectedly absent. Be sure to check your Slack messages to see if they are having any other difficulties. If a student misses a meeting you weren’t expecting them to, make note of it in your agenda and notify a staff member afterward.

Being Conscious of People’s Time

Before a meeting, you need to have a good idea of how much time will be spent on each piece of the the agenda.

If you notice you have too little or too much to cover, consider restructuring your meeting.

Think through this in advance (HINT: This is why agendas should be posted two hours before their meetings).

Quick Tip!

One way to respect your co-workers’ time is to make sure that everyone can contribute. Make sure to include everyone during discussion and brainstorming.

If an agenda consists solely of status updates, you may need to restructure your meeting and/or adjust who attends.

You are the Time-Keeper

The PM and JPM are responsible for keeping track of the conversation. Try to keep the team on-topic, but don’t be rude about it:

Let people finish their thought.
Consider the importance of the current topic compared to the remaining topics on your agenda.
Make note of the need for any further discussion (i.e. breakout meetings).

Assigning New Tasks and Status Updates

Assigning new tasks and checking on the status of previous tasks take up the majority of project meeting time. Here are some considerations:

1. Make sure that due dates are clearly stated when a new task is assigned AND make sure Basecamp reflects these discussions.

2. Ensure that all task information is consistently communicated between the following:

in-person discussion (e.g. a weekly meeting)
in agenda notes
in Basecamp tasks

If the information is inconsistent between these, it can be very easy for people to confuse due dates.

3. Give the opportunity for team members to voice concerns. You can foster this open communication by:

acknowledging workloads
reviewing project priority
suggesting helpful resources (if they are facing roadblocks)

4. Think about when a visual aid would be helpful for discussion.

For in-person work, make sure that the projector is working.

Decision-Making During a Meeting

During project meetings, it is common to find yourself presented with on-the-spot decisions. Maybe some client feedback just came in or someone’s project file was lost.

Roadblocks are bound to happen; your job is to be able to calmly assess the situation and find a solution. Additionally, there might be thought-provoking questions or new perspectives that can lead to changes in scope or timeline. These challenges are not always a bad thing!

Typically, a staff member is there to help, but what if they’re not? The JPM and PM need to know when to make a decision and when to hold off until the appropriate staff member can be included. When facing a challenge, ask yourself the following:

Who does this affect? Can you talk with them before the end of the day?
Are you approaching an important due date?
What resources do you have? (NOTE: This might be a person!)
Have we experienced this issue, or something similar, before? How was it handled?

Every situation is unique, so think of these as starting points. Resolving conflicts can be one of the toughest PM skills so don’t worry about getting it perfect the first time.

Conflict Resolution

The Digital Corps prides itself on its high-quality, creative work. As such, it can be easy to become emotionally invested in the success of these projects. An unexpected setback, a ‘boatload’ of client revisions, or a plain old bad day can lead to a tense meeting.

What can a JPM or PM do about it?

Try to track the ‘mood’ of a meeting. Consider the topics that will be covered to see if there might be points of conflict. Each project team interacts in different ways. As you get to know your team, you’ll notice effective and ineffective ways of communicating challenging topics.

Similar to short notice decision-making, conflict resolution is not an intuitive process for everyone. Remember that you are not your work. Sometimes, emotions are going to run high. It is not a “failure” if you’re unable to fully resolve a problem during a single meeting.

Depending on the severity of the conflict, it may serve you well to follow-up with a staff member. Take some time to collect yourself and reach out to a staff member. Who you contact will depend on the nature of the situation and your own relationship with them.

The important takeaway here is: Don’t let negative experiences fester! Get a conversation with staff going so you can create a game plan for the future.

Concluding a Meeting

At the end of any meeting, you should review the main points covered. Ideally, save five minutes for the end of your meeting to confirm major due dates and next steps.

Be sure to thank everyone for their time.

What’s Next?

The more meetings you lead, the easier it gets, so don’t fret if you’re nervous before your first few meetings.

If you have an especially large project team or the project you are PM-ing/JPM-ing is unique in some way, don’t hesitate to reach out to the helpful staff if you think the project may need a different approach for meetings.