New Year's Resolution: Take meeting notes please

Introduction

Managing the results and findings from meetings is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of successful project execution. Depending on your role in a Dynamics 365 Project, the number of meetings we have each day can be intense, to say the least. Specifically, in my role as an Enterprise Architect, the number one complaint about my role is the lack of "empty space" in my calendar. (I am getting better at this, I promise.)

Despite the lack of time, my biggest challenge is remembering the last thing the team discussed and what our next steps are.

If you don't want to read the entire article, let me summarize it for you: Just take notes in the Teams chat with your key decisions and follow-up tasks.

Otherwise, let's jump into it:

The Evolution of Taking Meeting Notes

When I started as a Dynamics consultant, my primary task was to sit in meetings, take notes, and share my findings with colleagues. This practice was incredibly valuable in learning and contributing to the project. Unfortunately, over the years, we have been lacking junior resources to help us with this task, and it feels like this has fallen through the cracks.

But wait, Ignacio! We have AI now!

Well, yes, we do. But have you read through those notes? The only way to make those notes valuable is if you specifically state in the recording that "resolution A is the main takeaway/task of this discussion." If you forget to specifically mention it, you get a spaghetti of words summarizing the entire conversation.

The Simple Yet Effective Solution

It really feels a bit silly to write a blog post with this "Pro Tip" on how to take notes, but it just works so well!

Let's imagine you are in a meeting, discussing a topic. In the last 5 minutes of the meeting, make everybody aware that you are running out of time. Ideally, the team has finalized the conversation and is ready to sail into the next topic. Not so fast, sailor!

As the meeting organizer, share your screen and open the Teams chat.

Write down your main takeaways. For example:

"We investigated the different options for procurement agreements and how it impacts pricing. We decided to use trade agreements for international vendors only. Pending is only if we can define the agreements in EURO. Mike to check if possible."

That's all. It takes one minute to summarize it, everybody is aligned, and Mike has a task to work on. After completing the task, Mike can just update this chat with his findings.

Now, on my current project, we tend to almost "over" document our findings. In this situation, we would create a Decision in DevOps and create a child task underneath the Decision for Mike.

Conclusion

In conclusion, effective meeting documentation is essential for maintaining project clarity and productivity. While AI summarization tools hold promise, they are not yet reliable enough to replace manual note-taking. By adopting a simple strategy of documenting key resolutions and tasks in the meeting chat, you can significantly improve your team's ability to stay informed and make better decisions. This approach ensures immediate accessibility, enhances clarity, and improves decision-making. I encourage you to try this method and share your experiences. Together, we can navigate the complexities of modern project management more effectively.

I would love to hear your comments about this topic. Feel free to leave a comment or reach out!