Why we use stand-ups

We know you’ve probably heard of these before. Stand-ups? Check-ins? Check-outs? Helicopter managers? Work-life balance? Ring any bells? Hear us out alright. We’re not a horrible corporate consulting company. We promise. The stand-up as we do today is a developed version of what our COO Barbara added to our workflows when we began having remote employees. Since then, it has become a key element of our workday, productivity, and motivation.

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Stand up if you love remote workflows

We have 14 employees, working across 7 different countries and 3 continents. Time difference alone is a challenge, but in an ever-changing world we want to provide a work environment that fosters productivity and our employees’ mental health. Remote-friendly workflows means our employees can work from where they want, whether at home, visiting family, on a beach, or up a mountain. For this to work, we need to be on the same page, we need to collaborate, and we need to take advantage of the work hours we have in common. It especially helps everyone feel part of the team, and not feel isolated in their projects.

One of our main goals with stand-ups was to limit time-wasting meetings. So here’s the pitch. Every morning in Europe, the business and tech teams join their respective Google Meets and review their plan for their day. Short, sweet, with a little socialising and catching up. Within 10-15 minutes, everyone knows what their colleagues are up to, and they even took the couple minutes before to plan exactly what they were going to do that day. Our jobs are interlinked, and sometimes all we need is a quick update, not an extra 20 minute meeting. After lunch, as our dear colleagues are sipping their first oat milk flat white in the New York office, we join our respective afternoon stand-ups. Quick update on the morning, quick preview of the afternoon, and the ScorePlay wheel rolls on. Revolutions. Planning. Accountability. And a bit of socialising.

Stand-up to all-hands

We all have our projects. These interlink, intersect and occasionally overlap. Keeping on top of the projects relevant to everyone’s role, allows us to be efficient and avoid doubling up on any tasks. It keeps us efficient. It keeps everyone accountable for their responsibilities, and gives everyone the chance to ask for a helping hand. These projects can last weeks, and can involve a large group, so every week, we also have an all-hands for the whole company.

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We use all-hands to give the two sides of the company an overview of the other - business and product. Not only does it give us the chance to see some friendly faces we may not see that often, but also provides a streamlined way of gathering information from the whole team. To prioritise. To focus. To specialise. Notion is the backbone of our projects, but the all-hands and stand-ups add the human side of who is involved and give us a chance to talk through them as a team where everyone has a voice. If you haven’t already included stand-ups as part of your ways of working. Why not?

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About ScorePlay

When combined with the right tools, stand-ups can quickly guide your organisation’s structure, motivation and weeks. At ScorePlay, we built our whole infrastructure using Notion, Discord, n8n, claap, and Metabase. With these tools, combined with our ways of working, we stay productive and motivated.

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ScorePlay automates the centralisation, classification and distribution of sports media assets with AI. A media hub built for the sports industry. Every user can easily browse the photos or videos they need and incorporate them seamlessly into whatever story they are crafting, from club-photographer content, to UGC all through ScorePlay Pulse. Storytelling simplified, collaborative photo and video sharing made easy.

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