Why github’s services programs team prefers slack-based standups
"I manage a remote team of seven distributed across several timezones. I was struggling to find a smart way to keep standups effective yet concise. That was, until I introduced my team to Geekbot."
Briana Swift, Senior Manager, Services Programs team
Over 50 million developers use GitHub to review code, manage projects, and build software. Geekbot sat down with Briana Swift, GitHub’s Senior Manager of the Services Programs team, to hear how she uses Geekbot to run more effective, more concise asynchronous standups.
The Services Programs team at GitHub used to hold twice-weekly standups using Zoom. But due to the timezone differences between the seven teammates, team manager Briana found it near-impossible to find a time that worked for everyone.
She also felt video-conferencing wasn’t right for the meeting format, so she went in search of a better solution. That’s when Briana found Geekbot.
She was instantly enamored by the prospect of asynchronous standups. And the thought of typing answers — then, skimming teammates’ text-based responses — sounded like a much more effective way to work.
Now GitHub’s Services Programs team runs all their asynchronous standup meetings in Slack.
Why standups in Slack make sense for GitHub’s Services Programs team
Beyond the added flexibility, everyone feels Geekbot is a more effective medium for standups than Zoom.
The team loves the fact they can quickly type out their answers and view others’ responses — all in Slack, at any point in the day. And they appreciate they no longer have to drop everything, just to attend a status update.
Add in the benefit of being able to ignore less relevant updates: and team members lose no time listening to issues that don’t concern them.
How Geekbot fits into GitHub’s Services Programs team workflows
From the outset, the Services Programs team didn’t want to hold standups every day. Unlike other departments, their projects don’t change that often, and the team didn’t want to have to retype the same update every day.
Geekbot lets the team avoid any duplicated effort because Briana can configure the bot to share standup questions in Slack on specific days at a preferred time (even switching days and times in different weeks), ensuring no-one ever has to repeat themselves.
Briana configured Geekbot to ask two simple questions. Each teammate then just needs to find a few minutes in their day to share responses, which Geekbot automatically posts to a dedicated Slack channel.
Now, by the end of every Monday, everyone has posted their answers and read those of others, meaning the team’s on the same page — while if there’s a blocker that someone needs help with, the necessary teammates have the full context.
Briana also gets Geekbot to repeat the exercise at the end of each week. She uses the same two-question format, enabling the whole team to share progress and plans.
This means that, every Friday, an ‘end-of-week check-in’ helps everyone share an update while items are still fresh-in-the-mind — instead of arriving on a Monday and having to think back to what they were working on last week.
The team saves time while staying up-to-date
Using just two asynchronous Slack-based questions, arriving each Monday and Friday, Briana’s team now gets in-sync: all without wasting seven people’s time in a thirty-minute, Zoom-based status update.
And thanks to the text-based answers, team members can think about their responses at their own pace before broadcasting them — and start side-discussions in a Slack thread if needed, instead of discussing items during the standup itself.
Key Takeaways:
- Standups don’t have to run daily if twice-weekly better suits your team
- Asynchronous standups help people avoid wasting one another’s time
- Text-based answers give people space to think and skim-read
- Tools like Geekbot can be precision-fitted to every workflow
Why GitHub’s Distributed Team Prefers Slack-Based Standups
Why did GitHub’s Services Programs team switch from Zoom standups to Geekbot?
Briana Swift, Senior Manager of the Services Programs team at GitHub, manages seven people across several timezones, and finding a Zoom slot for twice-weekly standups that worked for everyone was nearly impossible. She also felt video calls were the wrong format for status updates. With Geekbot, everyone types their update in Slack at a time that suits them, and the answers are posted to a shared channel for the team to read whenever they want.
Do Geekbot standups have to run every day?
No. You choose the days and time. GitHub’s team runs Geekbot standups twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays, with just two questions each time. You can run daily, weekly, on specific weekdays, or on a custom schedule, and set the time in each participant’s timezone so nobody gets a prompt at 3 a.m.
How does an asynchronous Slack standup save time compared with a video standup?
A 30-minute video standup for seven people costs three and a half hours of team time, plus the interruption of dropping everything at a fixed moment. With Geekbot, each person answers in a minute or two when it suits them, reads only the updates relevant to their work, and can open a Slack thread on a specific answer for follow-up. GitHub’s team stays aligned by the end of the week without a single meeting.
Can team members skip a Geekbot standup or read only the updates that matter to them?
Yes. Geekbot posts every answer to a Slack channel, so people scan what is relevant and skip the rest. Participants can also mark themselves out of office or skip a report when they have nothing new to share, and Geekbot’s optional reminders nudge people who forget without a manager chasing them.
What questions should I ask in a twice-weekly async standup?
Keep it short. GitHub’s team uses two questions per standup, for example what you are focused on this week on Monday and what you shipped or where you are blocked on Friday. Geekbot lets you edit questions at any time, so you can start with two and add a blocker or wellbeing question later if the team finds it useful.
