Team · Stand Up
The daily stand-up, in writing
Each person files one written check-in a day — what they finished, what they are on, how loaded they are, what is blocking them — tagged with the clients it was for. Read the whole team in a minute instead of holding a meeting.
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Team · Stand Up
The daily stand-up tool for marketing agencies
A fifteen-minute stand-up costs a six-person agency an hour and a half a day, and the one thing anybody needed to hear was said in the first ninety seconds. Stand Up in AI Marketing Dashboard turns that meeting into a written check-in each person files on their own clock: what they finished, what they are on today, how loaded they feel, and whether anything is blocking them — tagged with the clients it was for. The team lead opens one screen and knows where the day stands, without pulling six people out of focused work to find out.
Meeting or message
The same stand-up, without the standing
Keep what the meeting was for, knowing where everyone is, and drop the waiting for a turn.
The daily meeting
- Everyone waits for their turn to speak
- Late joiners miss what was said
- Half the room hears updates that are not theirs
- Blockers surface when somebody remembers them
- Nothing is written down once the call ends
The meeting asks for everyone at once. The check-in asks for each person once a day.
The written check-in
- Everyone answers once a day, on their own clock
- Each check-in names the clients the work was for
- A raised blocker reaches the admins and the leads of the clients it names
- An admin reads the whole team's day in a minute
- History stays as written, with a month calendar, a report and a CSV export
Private by default: a client's leads see the check-ins tagged with that client, everyone else sees only their own, and nothing reaches a client portal.
The daily flow
A working day, start to finish
Set the questions
An admin writes the form: an intro and as many as twelve questions, in any of five kinds, from short text to a 1 to 5 scale or a yes or no flag with detail, and picks who is expected to post.Everyone checks in
Each person files once a day, tags the clients the work was for and builds a streak of weekdays with a check-in.Read the day
Admins see who has filed and who is still expected, with the day's blockers and average workload above it. A lead sees the day for the clients they lead.Clear the blockers
Filter the feed to blockers only. Each new one alerts the admins and the leads of the clients it is about.
Start the day knowing where everyone is
Invite your team to a new workspace and put the first check-in form in front of them.
Plans start at $99/month.
On this page
The daily stand-up, without the daily meeting
Everyone answers in writing, on their own clock
A stand-up is a synchronisation problem, not a meeting problem. Stand Up solves it in writing: each person files one check-in per calendar day, whenever their morning actually starts, and the answers stack up on a single feed that an admin, or a lead for their own clients, reads in a minute. Nobody waits their turn, nobody repeats themselves for the person who joined late, and a designer who works 7am to 3pm is not dragged into a 10am call to say two sentences.
That matters more in an agency than almost anywhere else, because the people on a stand-up are rarely working on the same thing. Half the room sitting through the other half's client updates is the specific waste the daily meeting creates, and a written feed removes it while the people who run the work still see what they need to.
Ask your team the questions your agency actually needs answered
Up to twelve questions across five kinds, ordered by an admin
The default form is the classic four: what did you work on last, what are you working on today, how much is on your plate, and are you blocked. An administrator can rewrite all of it — add an intro line, add or remove questions up to twelve, reorder them, and pick the kind each one is: a short text answer, a long one, a 1-5 scale with your own labels at each end, a yes/no flag that asks for detail when the answer is yes, or a fixed set of choices.
Editing the form is an admin decision and stays one, so a check-in means the same thing across the whole agency rather than drifting per team. Marking a question required is how you make sure the answer you built the form for is the answer you get, and the composer will not accept a submission that skips it.
Blockers surface the morning they happen, not at the Friday review
A yes/no flag with the detail attached to it
The blocker question is a flag, and a raised flag carries its own explanation: the writer answers yes and then says what is in the way. On the feed those answers are marked, counted in the day's insight band, and reachable through a Blockers-only filter that strips the day down to the people who need something from somebody else.
A client waiting on brand assets, an ad account nobody has been granted access to, a developer blocked on a staging password — these are hours of dead time that usually go unnoticed until a deadline moves. Written the morning they appear and sent to the admins and client leads who can unblock them, they cost an email instead of a week.
A workload reading you get before somebody quietly drowns
Self-reported on a 1-5 scale, averaged across the day
Every check-in carries a workload answer on a scale you label yourself — light through overloaded — and the day's insight band shows the team average beside the submitted count and the blocker count. It is a feeling, not a metric, and it is deliberately kept that way: the number is what the person says about their own week, which is exactly the signal a utilisation report cannot give you.
Read across a fortnight it tells an owner the two things capacity spreadsheets never do — who is heading for burnout while still delivering, and which account is absorbing more of somebody's week than anyone planned. Hours belong in the timesheet; this is the human reading beside them.
Every check-in says which clients it was for
Tag the accounts, then filter the feed down to one
A person's day is rarely one account, so a check-in is tagged with every client it touched — including the agency's own internal work, which is a first-class scope rather than an afterthought. The feed then filters to a single client, which turns the stand-up into an account-level record: what moved on this client today, who moved it, and what stopped.
That is the view an account manager takes into a client call, and the view a new lead reads to catch up on an account they have just inherited. It comes free from the tagging people already do when they file the check-in.
See who has posted, who you are still waiting on, and who never misses
Submitted counts, waiting-on chips and weekday streaks
The day's band counts how many of the people you expect have filed so far, and a waiting-on row shows the faces of the people who have not — so chasing a stand-up is a glance rather than a message to everybody. When the last person files, the row says so instead of leaving you to count.
Each person also carries a streak of consecutive weekdays with a check-in, with a grace period for the day still in progress so an unfinished morning never resets it. Weekends do not break a streak, because a stand-up is a working-day habit and the counter should agree with that.
A written record of the week that never rewrites itself
Answer snapshots, a calendar, a report and CSV export
Answers are stored as self-describing snapshots: each one keeps the question it was answering and the wording that question had on the day. Change the form next quarter and last quarter's check-ins still read exactly as they were written, rather than being re-labelled by a question nobody was asked. A stand-up you cannot trust to stay true is not a record.
A month calendar and a member-by-day report walk back through the history, the day's feed filters by client or narrows to blockers, and the report exports to CSV when somebody wants the month in a spreadsheet — for a retrospective, a capacity review or a conversation about scope. Stand Up is deliberately an agency-internal surface: nothing here is ever shared into a client portal.
Moving from the daily call to a written check-in in two weeks
A change to a daily ritual works when it is staged. This rollout keeps the call for a week while the habit forms, then retires it.
Agree the questions
Start with the default four: what you finished, what you are on today, how loaded you are and whether anything is blocking you. Add one or two your agency really needs, and stop there.
Say who is expected
An administrator chooses who is expected to post. That shapes the Submitted count, the Waiting on row and the calendar, and it never stops anyone else from posting.
Pick a posting time and say it aloud
Stand Up sends no scheduled reminders, so the team needs a shared habit, such as posting before the first meeting of the day. Name the time and let the Waiting on row do the chasing.
Run both for a week
Keep the call, but open it by reading the feed instead of going round the room. Whatever people still say that was not in their check-in shows you what the form is missing.
Retire the daily call
In the second week, drop the call, or keep one weekly slot on the Meetings calendar for the conversations that need voices. The check-in carries the daily facts.
Writing a check-in a teammate can use
A good check-in answers the questions its reader would otherwise ask in a call.
| Question | Weak | Stronger | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|---|
| What did you work on last? | Worked on the website | Sent the revised homepage copy for sign-off and finished the April report draft | Names results a teammate can rely on |
| What are you working on today? | More website tasks | Build the booking page for the spring offer, then review the ad proofs | Tells a lead what to expect and what to ask about |
| Any blockers? | Yes, waiting on stuff | Yes: I need the ad account invite from the client before Thursday's launch | Names the obstacle, who can clear it and what is at risk |
| Which clients was it for? | No tags | Tagged with the two clients the work was for | Lets those clients' leads read it and keeps the feed filterable |
Write the blocker where the form asks for it. A raised blocker carries its explanation, counts toward the day's total and alerts the administrators and the leads of the tagged clients, so one clear sentence can save a day. Tag every client the work touched. A check-in with no tags, or tagged only with the agency's own account, stays between its author and the administrators.
Choosing question kinds for your own form
The default form suits most teams. When yours needs more, match the kind of question to the answer you want back.
| Kind | Use it for | An example |
|---|---|---|
| Short text | One fact, in a line | Which environment are you testing in? |
| Long text | A narrative the reader will skim | What did you finish yesterday? |
| 1 to 5 scale | A feeling or a rating, with your own words at each end | How confident are you in Friday's launch, from Unsure to Certain? |
| Yes-no with detail | A flag that needs an explanation when it is raised | Is anything waiting on a client? |
| Multiple choice | One answer from a fixed list | Where are you working today? |
An administrator edits the form: an introduction line and up to twelve questions in all. Mark a question required only when a check-in is incomplete without it, because every extra required question is another reason to skip the habit. Changes apply from the next check-in onward.
Who can read a check-in, and why that is the point
Private by default is what makes the answers honest. The rule fits in one sentence per reader.
| Reader | Reads | Sees on the page |
|---|---|---|
| An administrator | Every check-in in the workspace | Who has posted against who is expected, who is still waiting, every blocker, the team's workload, the Calendar and the Report, a CSV export and the form editor |
| A client lead | Their own check-ins, plus any tagged with a client they lead | A Your clients view of the feed, blockers and workload for those accounts |
| Everyone else | Only their own | Their streak, their week and their own calendar |
A lead is the person named Account Manager, Marketing Lead, Design Lead or Development Lead on a client's Team & Roles tab, so staffing a client also decides who reads its check-ins. Stand Up is an internal record that never appears in the client portal.
Note
Why reads are narrow
On a real team some people must post and others need not, and a feed everybody can read turns a coordination tool into an attendance sheet. Limiting reads to the people answerable for the work keeps the writing candid. Alerts about a blocker can reach people by email, device notification and the bell, according to their own settings, and the email and the notification do not name the client.
Reading the feed for signals, not scores
The workload figure is self-reported, and none of the numbers measures anyone's worth. Treat them as prompts for a conversation.
- Blocker
- A yes to the blocker question, with the detail of what is in the way written beside it.
- Workload
- A person's own 1 to 5 answer to how much is on their plate, averaged across the day for the people reading.
- Streak
- The number of weekdays in a row with a check-in. Weekends do not break it, and the day still in progress never counts against it.
- Waiting on
- The people an administrator expects to post who have not posted yet today.
- Expected to post
- The list an administrator keeps for the participation figures. It shapes the counts and never decides who is allowed to post.
| Pattern | What it can mean | A sensible response |
|---|---|---|
| The same client appears in blockers for several days | The obstacle sits outside the team: an answer, an access request or a decision | Take it to that client's lead and agree who will chase it, rather than letting each person write it again |
| One person's workload sits at the heavy end for days | Too much planned, or a task larger than it looked | Ask them first, then rebalance in Projects before a date is missed |
| A name keeps appearing under Waiting on | The habit has not formed, or the person is not expected to post | Check Who's expected before you chase |
| Most check-ins mention one client | That account is absorbing more of the week than planned | Compare it with the hours in the Worklog and reset the scope or the staffing |
Daily shows one day at a time, with a client filter and a Blockers only switch for administrators and leads. For an administrator, Calendar tints each day by how many of the expected people posted. Report, open to administrators and leads, lays members against days with posted cells and, for administrators, missed and pending ones, plus a By client breakdown and an Export CSV for the period. Every figure opens the day behind it.
Where Stand Up ends and other tools begin
A check-in is deliberately small. It points to bigger records instead of duplicating them.
- Hours belong in the Worklog. Stand Up holds the human reading beside them: how loaded a person feels and what is in their way.
- A blocker that needs a conversation belongs in Chat. The check-in says it exists, and the thread settles it.
- Work that has to be tracked belongs in Projects as a task. If the same obstacle is holding a task, move it to the Issues column so the board shows what the check-in says.
Stand Up is part of every plan, from Studio upward, and it sits in the Team group of the sidebar between the Worklog and Meetings.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a written stand-up take to write?
Short enough to finish before the first task of the day, which usually means a sentence or two for each long question. If people need much more, the form has too many questions or the work has too many threads. A tight check-in is also the one a lead will actually read all the way through.
Does Stand Up send reminders to people who have not posted?
No. It sends no scheduled reminders. An administrator sees a Waiting on row naming the people still expected to post, and the Report marks missed and pending days, so you can see who owes a check-in without messaging the whole team. Agree a posting time as a team habit instead.
Can I post or fix a check-in for yesterday?
Yes. Step back with the previous-day arrow, then post or edit the entry for that day. Stand-ups older than a month are read-only, and the arrow for the next day stops at today. There is one check-in per person per day, so a day you already covered is edited, not repeated.
Who is notified when someone raises a blocker?
The administrators and the leads of the clients the check-in is tagged with, never the author. They hear through the bell, an email and a device notification, according to each person's own settings, and the alert opens that day's entry. The email and the device notification do not name the client.
Can a teammate edit someone else's check-in?
No. Only the person who wrote a check-in can edit it. An administrator can delete any entry, for example one posted by mistake, but cannot rewrite what a teammate said. That keeps each check-in a faithful record of its author's own words.
Who sees the workload number I enter?
Whoever can read the check-in it belongs to: you, the administrators, and the leads of any client you tagged. Teammates cannot see it. Administrators and leads see the average across the check-ins they are allowed to read, which is a prompt to ask how things are going rather than a measure of performance.
Can clients see our stand-ups?
No. Stand Up is an internal record and is never shown in the client portal. The only people who can read a check-in tagged with a client are the administrators and the agency teammates staffed as leads on that client. People on the client's side never see it.