Next gen standups

We have firmly entered the era of mass remote work and Zoom has emerged as a crucial communications platform. Its growth and impact have been profound. But as people have adjusted to video calls being the primary way they hold meetings, we’ve all had to grapple with how to battle the fatigue that can come with it.

Being on camera and looking at a screen for hours on end is a very different type of meeting experience. It doesn’t just change the dynamics of how a meeting works, but also how well a team works.

Take the daily standup meeting. They’re a critical part of how teams move work forward. But as we talk to customers, we hear how frustrating standups can be over video. Status updates end off feeling like a waste of precious face-to-face time.

That’s why we’re especially excited to bring Check-ins to Zoom.

Already, Range’s async Check-ins are helping thousands of teams share what they’re working on and how they are doing. Launching today, Range’s new app for Zoom Meetings, means you can easily run a combined written and video stand up, getting the best out of both worlds.

Collect status updates in advance, then leverage “in-person” meeting time for connecting as a team and focusing discussion on what matters most.

Check-ins are a way to make standups more efficient, engaging, and inclusive.

How to stand up in Zoom

When teams check in with Range, everyone knows what’s happening and can more easily find the information they need, no matter where everyone is working.

And with the Range app for Zoom Meetings, this information is now readily accessible from within the meeting itself, providing a rich layer of context about your teammates — what they’re doing, what they’ve done, what they need, and how they’re feeling.

Here’s how it works.

Share a Check-in

Range sends a reminder each morning, which helps you build a simple habit of planning your day, reflecting on your work, and sharing that with your team. It takes just a few minutes to check in. It’s your moment of zen.

The format is just like a standup meeting. The questions—what’s your plan, and what happened—that make up a Check-in are the backbone of keeping your team in sync. Range makes answering these questions really easy by bringing in pull requests, tickets, docs, tasks — whatever it is you’re working on — right into your Check-in with one click.

The final part of a Check-in is a moment to connect with each other asynchronously, something that is especially important when everyone is working in different places. Each person can report on how they’re feeling with an emoji and a red/yellow/green status indicator, so you can see how everyone is doing at a glance and know if someone needs extra support.

Start your standup

When you start a meeting in Zoom, select the Range app. You can send it to everyone else in the meeting, and they’ll see the same view. If someone hasn’t shared a Check-in yet, it’s no problem. They can just share a mood to join in.

On the right you can scan a list of everyone in the meeting and their mood from today’s Check-in, helping you quickly get a sense of how everyone’s feeling, which can sometimes be hard over video chat.

Building connections, every day

One of the hardest things about virtual meetings is that we often jump right into work topics, and forget that meetings are also an important time to build connections as a team.

For this reason, we suggest starting your meetings with an opening round. Research shows if people speak early on in a meeting, they are more likely to engage throughout.

The Range app has a spinner tool which allows you to randomly select an attendee. Go round the virtual room, and have everyone check-in to the meeting.

You could do a traffic-light check-in, giving some context on your mood color. Or you could choose from over 350 icebreaker questions that we’ve bundled with the Range app — questions range from how was your weekend to explorations of hobbies, skills development, and working styles.

Focus on what matters

In your standup, instead of verbal status updates, your team can spend a few minutes reading each other's Check-ins.

It’s much faster to get up to speed this way, because reading is faster than talking, and each person can spend more time focusing on Check-ins that are relevant to them. If you notice something that you’d like to discuss, such as a blocker someone raised, just mark it as a topic you’d like to discuss. And if someone’s done great work, you can call that out too. After a few minutes of reading, you can move your team into discussion mode.

The Range app collects highlights from your team’s check-ins. Then as you move into discussion mode, you might focus on identifying blockers or you might start by celebrating work — so people feel thanked for their contributions. We’ve built the app in a flexible way that works with your existing meeting formats. Regardless, it’s much more efficient — you’ll have more time to have meaningful conversations — and it's more inclusive because everyone has the same opportunity to share.

Next standup, please

When you’re done with your meeting, Range keeps working for you by following up with the right notifications at the right time. You can configure reminders to come in before your standup meetings, choose when summaries get delivered, and much more.

Get Range for Zoom

Range is super easy to set up for Zoom.

• Single sign-on with simple user management — Range supports single sign-on with all popular platforms, so getting your team set up takes just a few minutes.
• Works with your favorite tools — Even beyond Zoom, Range works seamlessly with a wide range of tools including GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Trello, and many more.
• Amazing chat and email support — We’re fanatical about listening to customers, and we’re often able to answer questions right away. So if you’re ever stuck, let us know. We’ll be there to help.
• Get started for free — It’s free to get started. For small teams, Range is always free.

As you adapt your team to this new world of remote work, consider using Zoom and Range for your next standup, and see how it can help you and your team be more efficient, connected and engaged.