What meetings should our team actually have
Three scales of synchronization. Audit what is on the calendar against them, and cut what does not map.
When product teams struggle to make progress it often comes down to a lack of regular, synchronized communication. Don Reinertsen calls the fix the Principle of Periodic Resynchronization: efforts and mental models need bringing back into sync on a rhythm rather than by accident.
The reason is drift. Small variances in shared understanding, dependencies, and deadlines accumulate while people work independently, and the longer between syncs the more there is to sync on. Left to ad hoc check-ins, information gets lost and bottlenecks accumulate.
Modern product teams have coalesced around three scales: daily, weekly or per sprint, and quarterly. Anything on the calendar that does not map to one of them needs a reason stronger than habit.
What you get
- The three scales, with what each one actually buys you
- An audit table with a what-breaks-if-we-stop-it column
- Two rules that save more time than the audit itself, including keeping leaders out of team meetings
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Adapted from the Delivery chapter of The Mindful Product Company by Sam McAfee.