What is a daily standup?
A daily standup (also called the daily scrum) is a short, time-boxed sync (usually 15 minutes or less) where each team member answers three questions: what did I do yesterday, what will I do today, what is blocking me. The point is alignment, not status reporting to a manager.
Format that actually works
Most teams run the standard three-question format. Some find a board-walk version (walk the kanban board, ticket by ticket, talk only about in-progress work) more honest because it surfaces stuck tickets that the three-questions format hides.
Either way: stand up if you are co-located. Use a 15-minute timer. Defer side-conversations to a "parking lot" after the standup so the meeting itself stays short.
Why standups go wrong
- Status-reporting to a manager: kills psychological safety. The audience is the team, not the lead.
- Going over 15 minutes: once a standup hits 20+, attention drops. The hidden cost is real.
- Discussing implementation details: those belong in a separate huddle. Defer to parking lot.
- Skipping it when the team is remote: async-only standups work for some teams, but most lose blocker-surfacing within a few sprints.
Standup is not for
- Reviewing the entire sprint plan; that is sprint planning.
- Demoing completed work; that is the sprint review.
- Discussing process changes; that is the retrospective.