How to write a meeting agenda that tells you when you're done

To write a meeting agenda, ask the people attending what they need and keep only topics that concern all of them. Write each topic as a question the meeting has to answer. Beside it, say whether the group is there to share information, give input or decide, then name who leads it and how many minutes it gets.

The method is Roger Schwarz's, from his 2015 article in Harvard Business Review, How to Design an Agenda for an Effective Meeting. The full text is behind a subscription and we haven't read it. We've worked from HBR's public summary of it, and from the list of ten tips in a summary by Decisions, a company that sells meeting software. How we apply the tips below is our own reading.

Why a question beats a topic

HBR's summary gives the example. Instead of "office space reallocation", write "Under what conditions should we reallocate office space?".

A topic can't be finished, and you can talk about office space for an hour. A question has an end, so anyone in the room can see when the group has answered it. It also tells people what to prepare.

The second idea does a different job. The summary says to tell people whether the purpose is to "share information, seek input on a decision, or make a decision". Nobody can tell from "pricing test" whether they're being told about it or asked to choose.

An invented product meeting, rewritten

The team, its figures and its decisions are all made up, including the 4.1% below. Lea, Ben and Sam don't exist, and neither does their product. Here's the agenda as it stands on our meeting agenda template:

• 10 min: metrics
• 15 min: beta feedback
• 15 min: pricing test
• 5 min: actions

It's a reasonable list, and its 45 minutes add up. It doesn't tell anyone what they should bring, or what would count as finished. We'll go through it using Schwarz's tips.

Ask first, and cut what isn't for everyone

Lea sends the draft two days before and asks what's missing. Ben wants to discuss the file format for an export feature. That's a question for Ben and one engineer, and the summary warns that topics which don't affect everyone waste people's time. It becomes a separate conversation.

Turn each topic into a question

Mark the purpose and name a lead

This shows up a problem with the first item. Ten minutes is a lot for sharing a number that people can read beforehand. So Sam sends the trial conversion figure, 4.1%, the day before, and the item shrinks to five minutes for questions on it.

Add the two items people forget

The Decisions list includes two more tips. The first topic should be to "review and modify agenda as needed", and the meeting should end with a plus/delta, a short review of what worked and what to change. The five minutes saved on metrics pay for both.

That's still 45 minutes. The split is ours.

Say how each decision gets made, and how to prepare

The list also has "Propose a process" and "Specify how members should prepare". For the beta request, Ben writes on the board:

Read the three top requests before the meeting. Ben presents them in five minutes, everyone says which they'd pick, and Ben decides.

Now people know that they're giving input and Ben has the last word. Without that line, someone could leave thinking a vote had been held.

Check it at the end

Read each question and look for its answer on the board. On our sample, these are the notes that came out of the meeting.

Each action also gets a name and a date, as our template asks: "Lea: test plan by Fri", "Ben: export spec by Wed" and "Sam: invite five beta users by Fri". If a question has no answer at this point, that's your first item next week.

Faults to look for in your draft

A question that's really a topic with a question mark. "What about pricing?" could go on forever. Ask what a good answer would look like, and write that question.

Everything marked "decide". If a group is deciding seven things in 45 minutes, either the decisions are small, or several have been decided already and need to be labelled as information.

Nobody leading an item. The summary says to name the lead "so that they can prepare".

Minutes that are guesses from last time. Schwarz's list says to make the estimate realistic. If an item ran over last week, give it what it really took, or cut something.

Frequently asked questions

How far ahead should I send the agenda?

Our template says a day before, which is our own rule. If people need to read something first, send it earlier.

Should a recurring meeting use the same agenda?

Keep the frames and rewrite the questions each time. If a standing item never has a question, you may be able to drop it. For daily coordination, a standup needs no agenda of this kind.

What if the team wants to set its own agenda in the room?

That's a different format, called a lean coffee, where people write and vote on topics at the start. It suits discussion better than a decision you have to reach by Friday.

What about one-on-ones?

There, the person you manage should add most of the list. Our guide to one-on-one meetings has a count to check that.

Write your next agenda

Open the meeting agenda template and write your topics in the Agenda frame. Rewrite each one as a question, add a purpose and a name, and send the link. Anything raised on the day that isn't on the list can go in an idea parking lot.