How to Run Productive Status Meetings for Every Audience

Status meetings are a fundamental part of project management and are likely the most common type of meeting you’ll run as a project manager. But they tend to have a bad reputation. 

When status meetings get off track, address the wrong issues, or don’t encourage team participation, they can feel like a frustrating waste of time—or, as a team member once put it, a “snoozefest.”

The purpose of status meetings in project management

Status meetings provide a recurring time for project team collaboration and problem-solving. They offer a consistent opportunity to identify and troubleshoot issues early, reinforce priorities and alignment, and clarify next steps for the team.

Status meetings are usually held weekly or biweekly (depending on the project’s timeline and complexity). This cadence helps strike the right balance between keeping everyone informed and respecting their time. You don’t want attendees—whether they’re project team members, team leads, or internal stakeholders—walking away from status meetings thinking, “That meeting could’ve been an email.”

As the project manager, it’s up to you to do the prep work and grow your facilitation skills so the meeting serves its purpose of keeping the team aligned and the project on track.

What a status meeting should not be

Now that you know what a meeting is supposed to be, let’s discuss what it shouldn’t be. If you find yourself organizing around any of the following goals, I’d encourage you to reassess how you’re structuring the time:

• Updates for the project manager: As the project manager, you shouldn’t be getting all your updates in the project status meeting. Instead, use project tools like a gantt chart to get updates in advance.
•  “Story time”—aka reading the screen to the group: Reading what’s on screen is a great way to lose everyone’s attention fast. Ensure everyone has access to the project, and ask attendees to update their tasks in advance. That way, others can come prepared to ask relevant questions or discuss their needs.
• Your only touchpoint for team collaboration and problem-solving: Team members should work together in real time to resolve issues as they come up. A good status meeting acts as a safety net in case schedules don’t align, so your team knows they have dedicated time reserved for addressing challenges.

Common types of project status meetings

Status meetings can vary in format, depending on the audience, purpose, and project life cycle phase. Here's a quick overview of the most common types:

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Each type of project status meeting serves a distinct purpose and helps you get the right information to the right people at the right time. That’s why status meetings are such a reliable communication method.

Facilitating the flow of information is one of the best ways you can positively impact your project, so let’s get into how to make status meetings valuable for every audience.

How to tailor project status meetings to your audience

You can trust I’ll never tell you to do extra work because I’m all about working smarter, not harder. But sometimes extra effort is required, and you’ll need to put in the work to set your status meetings up for success.

The most effective way you can do this is to customize each status meeting. Tailoring each status meeting to its specific audience and purpose means both you and your attendees will need to do some prep work. Here are some questions you might ask yourself as you prepare:

1. Who’s going to be there? Let the attendee list guide the rest of your preparation.
2. What level of information do they need? Try to eliminate everything that isn’t necessary or could hinder participation.
3. What might they want out of the meeting? This is important because what attendees want may be different from what they need. Getting ahead of this can help you keep things on track.
4. What must be addressed in this meeting? Consider the project phase, the time remaining to key milestones, etc., as you determine what to add to the agenda.
5. What should be addressed if there’s time? Be sure to consider how these items will be addressed if you don’t have time to cover them in the meeting.
6. What time-wasters should you watch out for? Try to avoid conversational rabbit trails that distract you from the meeting’s goal.

Of course, your meetings won’t always fit neatly into one category. These questions can provide a simple framework for any status meeting—no matter who’s attending—so be sure to keep them handy.

Thankfully, you won’t have to start from scratch every time you plan a new status meeting. Let’s take a closer look at the most common types and unpack simple steps you can take to prepare and keep each group on track.

Daily standup meetings

If you have no other project status meetings, have a daily stand-up with your team. But please, don’t turn it into a robotic round of each person’s “yesterday, today, and tomorrow” tasks.

Those kinds of updates drain everyone in attendance. That was the format of the very first stand-up I ran, and after a couple of weeks, even I thought the meeting was a waste of time.

To avoid that trap, focus on the following goals:

• Finding out where people are stuck
• Identifying who can help get them unstuck
• Clarifying the priorities of the day

If any competing priorities or other issues have popped up, this is the perfect time to discuss them. You don’t have to solve every problem or challenge in the stand-up, but this daily meeting is a great way to keep a finger on the pulse of your project.

Recommended prep work:

• Review the status of in-flight work, and identify any tasks that might be stuck. 
• Look for longer-than-usual in-progress times or approaching deadlines that seem unreasonable given the progress to-date. In TeamGantt, tracking estimated versus actual hours is simple and makes spotting possible issues easy.
• Read through task comments, and make a list of unanswered questions.
• Right before the meeting, ensure your work management tool is open, updated, and in a shareable format.

As you hone your skills and get to know your team and projects, you may be able to shave time off meeting prep. Daily stand-ups may be quick, but they’re a great place to catch issues early. Taking time to prepare always pays off.

Example agenda:

1. Discuss issues, concerns, or questions on deliverables that are almost complete or due soon.
2. Address open questions in the project tracking software or from previous stand-up meetings.
3. Open the floor for any other questions, concerns, or FYIs for the group.

Watch out for:

• Spending too much time on any one issue: Identify which team members should connect after the stand-up and what they need to share back with the larger group.
• Reading directly from the screen: Encourage team members to keep their tasks updated in the project management tool, and focus the stand-up conversation on issues and priorities.

Team status meetings

Project teams typically want—and need—detailed information that directly impacts their work. A weekly or biweekly status meeting is the perfect time to get everyone on the same page.

Make this meeting valuable by ensuring team members walk away with actionable insights, clear priorities, and the chance to collaborate and problem-solve together.

Recommended prep work:

• Ask everyone to update progress in advance to keep the meeting efficient.
• Prepare a list of blockers or risks to discuss as a group.
• Review the project timeline, and make a list of approaching milestones and deadlines.
• Gather any stakeholder, executive, or client questions that need team input.

Example agenda:

1. Give a quick reminder of project goals and current progress.
2. Discuss risks, challenges, and resource needs.
3. Open a dialogue on pending stakeholder or client questions.
4. Review upcoming priorities and deadlines.
5. Recap action items and next steps.

Watch out for:

• Rambling updates: Encourage attendees to focus on issues and ideas rather than reciting updates. What problems do they see, and how can the team address them?
• Prolonged discussions: Reserve detailed problem-solving for breakout sessions or follow-ups to keep everyone on track.
• Rabbit trails: It’s easy to quickly change topics and lose the plot of the meeting. Your job is to keep the team’s attention on the most important issues.
• Project manager monologue: It’s great if you have a lot of information for the team—but you shouldn’t be the only one talking or sharing information. Give the team an opportunity to speak up, and ask questions to create a more engaging atmosphere.

Internal stakeholder meetings

Internal stakeholders typically require a broader view of project progress and resource allocation than project team members do. That’s why these meetings should focus on overall alignment with business goals rather than the granular project details. 

You must equip internal stakeholders both to help keep the project team on track and to be ready to report to their management on progress, issues, etc. Internal stakeholders are often discipline leaders, client account reps, or managers for other impacted teams. This means they frequently make budget, staffing, work package, and priority decisions that impact the project.  

This is where thoughtful prep work comes in. Provide enough detail to equip stakeholders to make decisions, but not so much that they get lost in the weeds.

Recommended prep work:

• Ask team members to update the gantt chart to reflect the latest progress, and flag any dependencies or risks.
• Prepare a summary of key updates, resource needs, and questions that need stakeholder feedback.
• Come ready with a list of trade-offs and proposed solutions as needed.

Example agenda:

1. Give a high-level report on project status and progress against milestones.
2. Discuss resource updates and adjustments.
3. Discuss risks or obstacles requiring stakeholder support.
4. Review next steps and alignment on priorities.

Watch out for:

• Unnecessary details: I may have been guilty of oversharing details with stakeholders once or twice in my life. (Just kidding—I’ve done that a bunch.) Try to focus on strategic, high-level updates, and only get into details if necessary.
• Distracted participants: Internal stakeholders are often managers or directors, so they’re usually multitasking. If you need a distracted stakeholder’s attention, call them by name, give them a quick context recap, then pose your question. And, of course, send meeting notes to all attendees afterward in case someone missed an important point.

Executive update meetings

A mentor once told me executives want you to be brief, be bright, and be gone. In other words, they want quick and concise updates on project aspects that are relevant to them. Executives prioritize strategic insights, risks, and outcomes, so tailor your updates to what they care about most.

Recommended prep work:

• Try to anticipate questions executives will ask and prepare answers ahead of time.
• Prepare an executive summary that outlines project progress, risks, and financial impacts. Keep this summary to one page or a couple of slides at most, but have additional information ready in case they want to drill down into the details a bit.
• Include a simplified roadmap view of the project with clear on-track and off-track indicators in your executive summary. TeamGantt’s Project Health Report makes it easy to give executives a high-level summary that’s visual too.
• Meet with your manager or other project stakeholders (maybe even the project sponsor) to review the update you’ve prepared before presenting it to executives. This is especially helpful if you’re an early-career project manager or new to an organization.

Example agenda:

1. Give a brief overview of project objectives and their current status.
2. Discuss risks and mitigation strategies or decisions as needed.
3. Provide an overview of major milestones achieved and upcoming priorities.
4. Leave time for Q&A and outlining next steps.

Watch out for:

• Overloading executives with data: Focus on key metrics and simple visuals to keep the meeting efficient and on topic.
• Interruptions: Expect executives to interrupt you, ask you to skip ahead, or disregard your visuals altogether. I’ve experienced this anytime I’ve met with executives, no matter the industry. Don’t take it personally, and be flexible as needed.

Client meetings

Clients are concerned with deliverables, timelines, budgets, and how the project impacts their business goals (e.g., projected revenue). Clear communication and transparency are essential with any client you work with.

Recommended prep work:

• Prepare a list of open questions from the team, stakeholders, or executives.
• Review any client action items and follow-ups from previous meetings.
• Make a client-facing view of your gantt chart. In TeamGantt, the best way to do this is to apply a “Client” label to critical milestones and deliverables, then filter the project to that label only. Remember, clients don’t need to see all work in progress—just what they care about most.
• Share this client-facing view with meeting attendees beforehand so they have time to review and prepare questions.

Example agenda:

1. Review deliverables completed since the last meeting.
2. Provide updates on the project timeline and budget.
3. Discuss the client’s feedback, concerns, and/or open questions.
4. Talk about alignment on next steps and action items.

Watch out for:

• Getting bogged down in technical details: Keep updates high-level unless the client requests specifics. Depending on the project type and level of client collaboration, consider inviting subject matter experts who can speak into topics you expect to cover in the meeting.
• Unclear next steps: Summarize action items and responsibilities at the end of the meeting. It’s never a good thing when a client leaves unclear about what to expect by the next meeting.

How to know if a meeting should be an email

As we’ve already discussed, you’ll want to use your meeting time effectively. Sometimes that means a meeting isn’t necessary at all, and an email from you will suffice. 

If any of the statements below are true, ask your project’s core team members for feedback on sending an email vs. hosting a meeting:

• No new issues or questions have come up since the last meeting. (This happens most often with weekly meetings.)
• There are no upcoming deadlines or key milestones.
• The team doesn’t have any questions or concerns to address, and neither do you.
• The team is under a super-tight deadline and needs to stay heads-down to complete a deliverable.

Aim for continuous improvement

Running effective status meetings is a skill you can improve with practice, so don’t get down on yourself if your team is disengaged or doesn’t show up consistently. Challenges like these are normal, but each meeting is a chance to level-up.

Here are a few tips to help you refine your approach over time.

• Gather feedback: Regularly ask your team, stakeholders, and clients for input on meeting format, content, and cadence. This can be done through formal methods (e.g., surveys) or informal methods (e.g., hallway conversations or Slack messages).
• Monitor engagement: Watch for signs of disengagement or distraction, and tweak your approach to keep participants interested and involved.
• Keep experimenting: Be open to trying new techniques to make your meetings more effective.

Turn status meetings into a productivity powerhouse

Catering each status meeting to your audience is a sure way to increase engagement and productivity. Just remember to do your homework. Show up with documents and visuals that make it easy for attendees to get up to speed on the info they care about most.

TeamGantt simplifies your prep by offering one spot to house all your project details. It also allows you to centralize project updates, edit timelines in real time during your status meetings, and easily track action items and next steps.

By continuously refining the focus and facilitation of your project status meetings, you can save everyone time, improve collaboration, and increase your chances of project success. 

Try TeamGantt for free today, and turn your status meetings from a snoozefest into a productivity powerhouse!