Meetings¶
Before the meeting¶
If you're organizing the meeting, you'll likely talk about the data.
- Identify your objective — purpose, goals, outcomes; questions to address
- Acknowledge participants — keep them involved with their points of view and experience
- Organize the data — turn raw data into accessible formats; create visualizations
- Prepare and distribute an agenda — share ahead of time
During the meeting¶
As leader, guide the data discussion. With everyone informed:
- Make introductions (if needed) and review key messages
- Present the data
- Discuss observations, interpretations, implications
- Take notes
- Determine and summarize next steps
After the meeting¶
Keep the project and team aligned with a brief recap.
- Distribute notes / data
- Confirm next steps and timeline
- Ask for feedback (great way to surface what you missed)
Agenda template¶
# [Meeting title] — [Date]
## Attendees
- @alice (lead)
- @bob
- @carol
## Objective
[One-sentence purpose]
## Pre-read
- [Doc / dashboard link]
## Agenda
1. Review of prior action items (5 min)
2. Data findings — [topic] (10 min)
3. Discussion (10 min)
4. Decisions and next steps (5 min)
## Materials
- [Slide deck]
- [Dataset]
Email format (recap)¶
Subject: [Recap] [Meeting title] — [Date]
Hi team,
Quick recap of today's meeting. Full notes attached.
Key takeaways
- [Insight 1]
- [Insight 2]
Decisions
- [Decision 1] — owner @alice
- [Decision 2] — owner @bob
Next steps
- [ ] @alice — [task] by [date]
- [ ] @bob — [task] by [date]
Open questions
- [Question for stakeholder]
Thanks,
[Your name]
Tips¶
- Keep meetings ≤ 30 minutes if possible
- Ban "no agenda, no meeting"
- Send pre-reads ≥ 24h ahead
- Start and end on time
- Decision log > meeting notes (decision is what matters later)
- Follow up in writing within the same day