If you are a TPM or any kind of Program/Project manager, chances are that you will be attending multiple status update meetings per week. You will also hear many people cribbing about the time wasted in status meetings and how this could have been used more productively. While there is some truth to it, you will realize you have limited control on the number of these meetings. Every status meeting is your opportunity to shine.

Below are some important points to remember while attending Status Meetings:

  • Understand Audience

  • Prepare/Present Content According to Audience

  • Tackling Yellow/Red Status

  • Being in Sync with other Meeting Participants

  • Handling Questions

  • Volunteer for Meeting Minutes/ Action Items

  • Deep Dive Opportunity

  • Show Interest in other’ Statuses

 Understand Audience:

While, multiple status meetings may look similar, in most likelihood, they are not. Notice and understand the audience of this meeting. These come in multiple flavors:

  • Manager driven: Your Manager may be running a meeting covering the whole portfolio under it where you will cover your area.
  • PM and PdM syncs: You may be meeting with your Product Managers on a regular basis.
  • Director/VP/Skip Level driven: This will have all the PMs (and perhaps Engineering Managers) under your Director/VP.
  • Tech/Business Syncs: This will have folks from the Technology Division long and Business Division.

Prepare/Present Content According to Audience:

This is where the crux of the problem lies. It is NOT about the status update you are providing, are you speaking the language of your audience. Are you talking about the things that they care for?  For example, your technological upgrade may have very little value for the business audience unless you connect it with System Stability, Security etc. related to business continuity/impact. Let’s go over content focus for each type of meeting:

  • Manager Driven: Here you want to cover everything – technology, business, process, partner engagement- showcase all the work you are doing on multiple fronts. Do not hesitate to hog the limelight. Your manager and peers should get the impression that you have a ton on your plate and you are moving the needle on multiple fronts. Try to be the first one or the first few ones to give the status. This will make sure that you do not run out of time in the end.
  • PM and PdM syncs: Here you want to focus first on the new business facing features followed by tech related work. This session can also be used for requirements clarifications to an extent. Make your Product Managers aware of how hard team is working. Many times, Product Managers do not appreciate the amount of work involved in lighting up simple features because of limited technical knowledge or complexities involved in partnership amongst different technology teams. As a PgM it is on your shoulders to make them aware of this.
  • Director/VP/Skip Level driven: Here you will provide a more compact version of your status update. Be ready to answer questions from people who are not working on your project. Your understanding about the overall project charter, vision, scope etc. will come handy as these questions are at an Uber level. Having an elevator pitch ready about your project will help. Do you know the major milestones specially ones where coordination with other teams may be required?
  • Tech/Business Leadership Syncs: These meetings happen infrequently – from biweekly to quarterly. You will have limited time to present your work. Keep it very compact and business impact focused. Keep the technological jargon low to make sure your business counterparts do not feel out of place. Your story should fit into how your project/work is impacting the overall organization/company initiatives.

Tackling Yellow/Red Status:

While attending these status meetings, you will invariably hit a situation where your project is either Yellow/Red. Here are the things to be aware when your project status is Yellow/Red:

  • Know the Color definitions: Even if you are attending the status meeting 100th time, a discussion may start on what is the definition of Yellow/Red. This definition may differ meetings and audiences so make sure you have the definition handy.
  • Path to Green: Any time your project is Yellow/Red, you should have a path to green handy along with actions, resources and timelines associated with it.
  • Avoid Surprises: It is always a good idea to fill in your manager early in a 1:1 setting if your project is Yellow or Red. It is critical to fill in your manager early if this is a Skip level/Leadership or a Business meeting. Your manager may provide you invaluable inputs to tackle it well and inform his leadership in advance with his views/inputs before it is discussed in the meeting (which probably a bigger forum)
  • Hesitation to mark project Yellow/Red: None of us want to show our projects in Yellow/Red Status but do not hesitate because its better that you call it Yellow/Red instead of a Business Partner or Leadership person asking you to mark it that way. Its better that your project moves from Green to Yellow to Red, instead of Green to Red. You may be dinged for a Green to Red status meaning you allowed things to slip too much without management/leadership awareness.
  • Anticipate Questions: Why did the project turn Yellow/Red, why did you not anticipate this early, have you done risk planning, how can management help etc.
  • Use this Opportunity: Many times, management/leadership is so busy that they only pay attention to Yellow/Red projects. You will be in the lime light, tell them of the challenges and how you are tackling them, ask for help if its needed. Offer to send more frequent updates if leadership would like.

Being in Sync with other Meeting Participants:

This is critical when you have peers or partners in a Skip level/Leadership meeting. Depending on the meeting, identify which meeting participants need to know of your status update content in advance. For example, Project Manager and Engineering Manager should already be aligned on the status to the Director/VP. If you are blocked/impacted by a partner, let her/him know that you plan to bring that up in the leadership meeting etc. If other participants start differing with your update in the meeting, it gives an impression to leadership that you are not talking to your peers or partners. You do not want that label on you!

Handling Questions:

You may answer questions as they come up, ask the audience to wait until you have finished your status update or offer to meet them offline if that is required

Volunteer for Meeting Minutes/ Action Items:

You can propose to the meeting organizer if you can help with meeting minutes. This will give you a bigger role in the meeting immediately, you can comparatively more rights to ask for clarifications/questions and to an extent assignment of action items. Many meetings result in action items where Manager/Leadership may ask for volunteers. You can pick some of those based on your schedule etc. Just do not be the one who never volunteers for anything, even if its as small as collecting ideas from team members for the venue of next morale event.

 Deep Dive Opportunity:

Many times, these status meeting organizers are looking for ways to get more content or ideas to make it more interesting. You may express interest to the organizer that if there is enough interest you would like to do a presentation/deep dive of your area. This has multiple advantages, this will force you to learn about your space more deeply, enhance your presentation skills, gives you precious face time with management/leadership and creates a positive impression on your peers.

 Show Interest in other’ Statuses:

While it may look like that your focus should entirely be on your status update, pay attention to what others are saying how it may impact you. Show interest and ask questions (play softball only). This will increase your visibility; overall understanding of the ecosystem and you can make more valuable suggestions/contributions. It will also give you an idea of your/your project’s standing viz a viz others when it comes to scope, size, importance etc. Remember you will be compared to all your peers at performance review time and you should have an idea in advance how you are faring ‘against’ them.

In summary, understanding of your audience, due preparation, keeping the right people in the loop and avoiding surprises are some of the important parts of being successful in the Status meetings. This is your opportunity to show that you are on top of things and calling the shots!