Effective meeting minutes

As a TPM, we have to organize and attend a lot of meetings. Common notion is that TPMs are responsible for taking the meeting minutes. While I disagree with that, oftentimes I find myself taking notes for my own sanity. The general rule I follow is if I organize the meeting then I take the meeting minutes. Here are the different types of meeting minutes/notes templates I use.

1.    Verbatim notes:

When to use:

Use for high stakes meetings with Exec/Senior Management and you are not the one driving the meeting. Sometimes I do record the meetings with the team members’ consent and then type out elaborate notes. This type of note taking is time consuming so need to choose wisely. A good idea would be to run it by the Technical lead to see if this is needed. You would not need to write this type of notes often. If you are, then, evaluate why you are having to do it so often, discuss with your team members and establish clear criteria on when and why you are doing it.

What to include:

1. Meeting title, date/time, attendees, agenda
2. Action items / Next steps
3. Decisions & commitments
4. Summary notes
5. Verbatim notes (includes who said what)
6. Links, attachments if any
7. Link to the meeting recording if it has been recorded

Pros:

1. Typically for meetings with Senior Management, the attendees are limited and so having these elaborate notes helps out the stakeholders that have not been invited to the meeting.
2. There is no room for misinterpretation.
3. Context for an action item/ decision is all documented.

Cons:

1. Needless to say, it is very time consuming. Particularly if you are not fast at typing, you would have to record the meeting and transcribe or have a tool to transcribe.
2. Need to edit out any sensitive information, colorful language, any negative emotions.
3. TPM is busy typing out the notes and so unable to actively participate in the meeting or not actively listening with the intent to understand.

2.    Detailed notes:

When to use:

Use for very important meetings like requirements gathering, strategy, vision, etc. Very similar to what is included in the verbatim notes except it is not verbatim and do not need to write who said what.

What to include:

1. Meeting title, date/time, attendees, agenda
2. Action items / Next steps
3. Decisions & commitments
4. Detailed notes
5. Links, attachments if any
6. Link to the meeting recording if it has been recorded

Pros:

1. All important details are captured.
2. Team members that did not join the meetings can read the notes and understand the details.

Cons:

1. Time consuming, particularly if you are not fast at typing.
2. TPM is busy typing out the notes and so unable to actively participate in the meeting or not actively listening with the intent to understand.

3.    Summary notes:

When to use:

Used for most of the meetings.  Examples are working group meetings, brainstorming discussions etc.

What to include:

1. Meeting title, date/time, attendees, agenda
2. Action items / Next steps
3. Decisions & commitments
4. Summary notes
5. Links, attachments if any.

Pros:

1. Not very time consuming from note taking perspective.
2. TPM is able to actively participate in the discussions.

Cons:

1. Sometimes the context of the action item is forgotten.
2. People that did not attend the meeting might not understand the context.

 4.    Action items only:

When to use:

Use this for daily standups or coordination meetings. Works best when we have recurring meetings that occur very frequently (ex: daily, alternative days) and have the same set of attendees in all instances. Best to add them to a tracker that the team constantly monitors.

What to include:

1. Action items

Pros:

1. Minimal overhead for noting down the action items.
2. Anyone of the attendees can add the action items

Cons:

1. Sometimes the context of the action item is forgotten.
2. People that did not attend the meeting might not understand the context.

Some tips & tricks:

1. Decide which format you want to use and create the template of the document prior to the meeting.
2. If appropriate, project the document on the screen so that everyone can see the notes and suggest corrections immediately. This is really helpful because everyone would have reviewed the notes while you are taking them and you would not need to spend too much time afterwards cleaning up the notes. However, sometimes this is distracting to the participants. So choose wisely.
3. Use a tool that allows multiple people to make edits to the document simultaneously and also allows tagging.
4. If you use acronyms, either create a table below the meeting minutes and document what those acronyms are or expand them out the first time they are used and use the acronyms in the subsequent occurrences.
5. Avoid adding negative emotions in the notes and be as objective as you can.
6. If positive feedback is provided, ensure to highlight it.
7. Have someone else proof read the notes before sending them out to the broader group. While this is not feasible always, do this for important meetings.