How to run a great virtual meeting at home
9 simple steps towards effective meetings and presentations in this remote world
It’s been a while since we are here and it’s not looking to end anytime soon. Many tech companies such as Google have announced that they plan to let its employees work from home until summer 2021¹. Working from home is the new normal. As much as people are tolerant with bad internet connection and kids screaming in the background, it’s time for us to adapt and change. As a product manager, going to meetings and hosting meetings are probably what I spend most of my time on any working day. Like many of you, I hate having excessive and unproductive meetings. Covid has given me a great opportunity to re-evaluate my company’s heavy meeting culture and to reform our meetings towards better progress. In this post, I will share my learnings on running virtual meetings to help you and your team be more productive remotely.
1. Share your objective and agenda ahead of time
You need to be crystal clear on what you want to achieve with your meeting and help your attendees to be on the same page. You should always provide the context, goal or agenda ahead of time to the meeting attendees. Sometimes, it’s even helpful to discuss with your key stakeholders ahead of time to see if a meeting is even necessary to achieve your goal.
2. Set your meeting time based on your objective
Depending on your agenda in mind and how you think your audience will respond, your scheduled meeting time could vary. For example, if this is a tactical check-in and you don’t expect it to take a full 30 minutes, don’t hesitate to schedule 15 minutes instead. You may be surprised that setting the right time frame can really help you reduce the likelihood of derailing from your objective and make your meeting more productive.
3. Set up a professional “stage”
Essentially you want to pick your presentation background to meet the following:
- Have a clean background that would not distract your audience.
- Set up your background to match your ideal professional image.
- Make sure you can sit or stand comfortably to stay energized for the duration of the meeting(s).
- Minimize distractions from background noises and possible interruption from your family and pets.
4. Optimize your “tech” in advance
This generally involves making sure your audio and video work as expected. Most importantly, your internet should be optimized as well. You can check your internet speed via Fast.com. According to Google Meet, you should be good for group video meetings with 3.2Mbps+ for both your outbound and inbound speed. You can find the below resources from major video chat software providers to optimize your connection.
- Google Meet: Prepare your network for Meet video calls
- Zoom: Enhancing Your WiFi-Powered Zoom Meeting
- Skype: Troubleshooting issues with Skype call quality
5. Have a plan B for “Technical Difficulty”
This is extremely important especially if you cannot just simply reschedule the meeting if things go wrong. Some things I do to be prepare for this are:
- Have alternative internet sources (such as mobile hotspot and remote wifi egg).
- Share presentation materials at the beginning. This way in the case your internet fails, you can still dial in via your phone to walk through the material.
- Get a presentation buddy or co-host. This is very important if you are presenting in a more formal setting or with a larger forum. In the case that your internet is wonky, you can call in while they walk through the presentation for you.
6. Set expectations on how you want your audience to engage
Again, this should be set based on your objective. Is your meeting more informative or is it more open ended aiming to collect feedbacks? You should share your expectations for the audience at the beginning of your meeting. Based on your expectations, you might want to collect feedback throughout the meeting, leave specific Q&A time at the end or allow attendees to speak up at any time. If your meeting aims to gather feedback, then you should also explain the type of feedback you are looking for in advance.
7. Pause to capture questions and reactions
Online audiences tend to be more passive and less engaged. People are less likely to unmute themselves and interrupt you to ask questions. Periodic pauses (5 seconds or more) can help you observe the room (through your grid view) and also give your audience a chance to process the information or make a comment.
8. Share key takeaways and next steps
Be mindful of how you use your time and always try to leave time in the end to summarize key takeaways and next steps. Moreover, it helps to put this in writing after your meeting and share it with all the attendees to make things crystal clear. This is the best way to keep track of progress, make sure people are aligned and keep them accountable for their action items.
9. Leverage tools for collaboration and activities
Most of common collaboration activities involve whiteboard and sticky notes. It’s certainly not easy to design virtual activities that engage with your audience and contribute to your objective. To do so more effectively, you can leverage various tools and softwares built to help with online collaboration. For example, the breakout room feature in Zoom lets you leverage small group discussions. Here are some useful tools for design thinking, brainstorming and decision making in meetings.
Interestingly enough, many people seem to hate meetings no matter if they are the ones who scheduled them or not. With some of these tips, hope you can have less meetings, and more effective meetings!
