How do you make project meetings effective?
What the interviewer wants to hear
- Clear purpose and agenda shared in advance
- Invite only people who are needed
- Timebox and keep to the agenda
- Record decisions, actions, owners and due dates
- Follow up and cancel meetings that are not needed
Model answer
I start by asking whether a meeting is the right tool at all; sometimes a short message or shared document works better. If it is, I set a clear purpose, such as making a decision or resolving a blocker, and share an agenda in advance with any pre-reading. I invite only the people needed to decide or contribute, and I let others read the notes. During the meeting I keep to the timebox, steer side topics to a parking lot and make sure quieter people get a chance to speak. Before we finish, I read back the decisions and the actions, each with an owner and a due date. I send short notes the same day and track the actions in our tool, such as Jira or a RAID log. I also review recurring meetings every few weeks and cancel or shorten those that no longer add value.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed easy round and get scored on every answer.
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