December 10, 2020 (Updated February 23rd, 2023)
Tired of daily stand-ups? Here’s your solution
Most offices tend to have their daily traditions – whether it’s a Monday morning brainstorm for the week ahead or perhaps a cool-down review on a Friday afternoon. However, team stand-up meetings have become a common staple in many office workers’ daily routines. Unfortunately, as with many elements of office life, these rituals have had to be reconsidered or even abandoned completely as teams have adjusted to extensive remote working over the past year.
This leads us to the question: How can we maintain this level of communication and interaction with our colleagues remotely? The obvious tools to answer this question (such as video conferencing and instant messaging) have naturally seen an incredible increase in use over the last year, with Zoom, in particular, experiencing a tremendous growth in user uptake from newly dispersed teams and even between family and friends.
But, as with any office tradition, daily stand-ups can become such a part of the norm of your office culture that you can easily become complacent with how well they actually work – and almost carry out these exercises for the sake of habit. Usually around 10-20 minutes long (depending on the size of your team), daily stand-ups typically involve each member of the team running through their planned tasks for the day, giving their colleagues the opportunity to pitch in with ideas and generally keep the entire team in the loop.
However, with the shift to working from home, it’s forcing teams to reconsider how they communicate – and if there is a better and more productive way to do it.
Taking your daily stand-ups online
Often one of the biggest gripes teams experience with daily stand-ups is how quickly priorities can change. Perhaps you’ll have your daily stand-up first thing in the morning, only to find an hour later that your priorities are redirected elsewhere. It’s important to keep your team informed of any changes in your priorities that may have an impact on the rest of your colleagues – and popping updates in your team’s group chat can easily get lost amongst the bubble of conversation.
That’s why at Ayoa, we introduced our team collaboration feature, team pulse. Team pulse is an interactive space for people to post status updates about their work, giving your entire team a snapshot of what everyone is working on. So whether it’s an update on your current to-dos or a status to say what you’ve achieved that day, every team member has one space to go to see all the important updates they need – so nothing gets lost in communication and everyone stays informed.
Easily update as priorities change
Team pulse allows you to go back and edit your pulse whenever you need to – which means that your manager or anyone else on your team can see what you’re working on at any point during the day, saving you from any confusion or miscommunication. This helps you save time from messaging your colleagues directly for updates or being left unsure of any information you need – simply head to the team pulse dashboard.
Keep in touch with focused discussions
We’re all used to the typical Facebook status – where you can react and comment on each one. Team pulse works in the same way, meaning if you have any questions regarding someone’s plan for the day or particular piece of work, you can simply comment on their update or react with an emoji. This means that all communication is kept focused and in one place for everyone to have easy access to.
Cross-department communication
Ayoa also allows you to sort your contacts into handy user groups which will be automatically added to the team pulse dashboard, making it easier and quicker to find the colleague you’re looking for. You can also quickly start a group conversation in Ayoa chat with every member of that group. By splitting your contacts into the different departments of your organization, you can see clearly the priorities of each department, without the need to ask for updates individually every morning.
Ideal for remote and office life
Heading back into the office? If you’re tired of daily stand-ups eating into your morning productivity, team pulse can still remain your solution to time-wasting discussions, even when you’re sat in the same room.
How Team Ayoa use team pulse
Here at Ayoa, we live and breathe our product. We’ve designed Ayoa to make working life easier and more productive for not just you, but for us as well – and features such as these have really helped us to transition smoothly from office life to remote working during the pandemic.
Each morning, when we log in to start work for the day, we each head to team pulse to update our status with our plans for the day. This is a great opportunity for us to not only see who’s ‘arrived at the office’ for the day as we take advantage of flexible working, but it’s also our space to greet each other as we would in the office and see in an instant what everyone is working on. Forget daily stand-ups – team pulse keeps us informed across the entire organization within a few short seconds; and it’s this cross-department communication that can be typically tricky to manage, even in the office.
Along with our built-in video chat functionality and instant messaging feature, Ayoa chat, team pulse is just one of the ways that we keep each other up-to-date and ensure that strong communication is always prioritized – something that can be difficult to maintain when physically separated from your colleagues.
Please note that team pulse is only available for users with an Ultimate plan. If you have a Free or Pro plan, please upgrade to use team pulse.
Building your digital office
In order to work as efficiently as possible from home, there are the typical tools you need to keep business running as smoothly as it would from the office. Video conferencing and instant messaging have become foundational tools for keeping teams connected and able to communicate in an instant, but having something that helps you to recreate your digital office in one unique workspace will do wonders for your productivity.
Ayoa’s aim is to make your working life easier and provide you with all the tools you need for every element of your working life. And with remote working looking to become even more commonplace as we move forward, having powerful tools to help you manage every aspect of your work is essential. From brainstorming new campaign ideas with your team to tracking tasks, managing projects and collaborating with others, Ayoa is putting an end to app-switching and aims to save you time and money – and make you more productive to boot.
Discover more about team pulse and what our Ultimate plan has to offer by signing up today!
Louise Cunnah
Louise Cunnah has always had a passion for the written word, leading to her studying English, Media and Journalism at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Since graduating in 2014, she has held a number of different roles in marketing, both agency-side and in-house for brands like Ayoa. She loves taking on a challenge and has written content on a diverse range of subjects over the years, including horticulture, business management, telecommunications, health and safety, productivity, neurodiversity, and personal finance (to name but a few!).