My team at UHG has about 13 individual team members. We have 3 full time developers, 3 part time developers, a scrum master, business analyst, product owner, engineering director, project manager and two QA testers.

Meetings are one of the most precious resources we have because the most finite resource we all have is TIME.

How much does it cost?

Assume everyone makes $55 on average in the team, that would mean every time we held a 20 minute standup we’re spending a total of $215 or about $860 an hour.

For a 2 hour meeting (like a retro or a sprint planning session) we’re spending about $1800.

What’s the RIO?

Do you need this meeting? Will this meeting move the team forward? Could this meeting be summarized in an email? Ask these questions before you schedule your next meeting, please!

We need to focus on moving our teams forward and giving the business a fair return on the money it’s investing in the products being delivered. Maybe your meeting is super important, but if it’s not can you make the meeting smaller? Send an email?

Strike a balance

I hate pointless meetings. If you take 2 hours of my time, please give me an ROI and a deliverable that’s actually useful for moving us forward.