Standups aren’t the problem; the way we use them is
The truth: Standups aren't useless; they’re just misused.
Just read Ian Field’s post on how the team might underuse standups. And the comments? Wooow 🔥 Some real talk from folks who get it, but most of them don't.
Here’s the truth: standups aren't useless, they’re just misused.
A lot of people, including me, feel like saying “Still on task X” every day doesn’t help anyone. Because... it doesn’t. But just removing standups? Not the answer either.
👉 The real purpose is team collaboration. Not status reporting. Not micromanagement. It’s to:
Spot blockers early
Sync with others
Share what’s done and what’s next
Ask for help before you're stuck
🧠 Someone in the comments nailed it: “If no one depends on this info, why are we interrupting focus?” Exactly. If you're not collaborating, standups feel like a waste.
🧩 My take: Daily standups are useful only when real progress or blockers are happening. Otherwise? Async updates or less frequent syncs might be better. Don't force it. Optimize it.
💬 Here's what good standups should sound like:
“I solved the DB deadlock issue. Next I’m rewriting the retry logic. Might ping QA later.”
Boom. Clear, short, and helpful.
(This above might be a silly example that, as pointed out by a good friend, could be simply a message in the team chat, but the sad truth we are not all high performing communicators. Many of us close up on ourselves and keep issues only for ourselves. Hence why the main reason of why standups were invented)
✋ Bad standups = micro-management theater.
✅ Good standups = high-impact, low-noise team sync.
Let’s stop doing standups for managers. Let’s do them for us, the team.
Here is the link to the post of Ian:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7320487806231810049
Here is Ian's inspiring profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianjfield
This post isn't meant to be a lesson or an attempt to force you into doing anything that makes you uncomfortable. Standups, whether you like them or not, are here to stay. So, better find a solution to the problem and stop coming to me, pointing out over and over how useless these interactions are.
I'm not debating dumb stuff like whether it's better to work from home or the office. Whatever you prefer is fine by me, as long as you show proactiveness in team efforts. Because frankly, you're not a solo dev, and your salary is paid by someone else.
If we were all that good and didn’t need a team or a steady paycheck, then we’d all be freelancers, managing everything ourselves: funds, expenses, commercials, marketing, sales, outreach, and everything else.
We should stop using LinkedIn as a dumping ground for our frustration and instead treat the insights of others as material to get better.