Daily Status Updates (SOD and EOD)

Communication is key, especially for a remote-first company that spans multiple timezones. One of the simplest and most effective patterns we have found to ensure coherence is posting Start of Day (SOD) and End of Day (EOD) messages to the appropriate Slack channel.

Everyone should post these messages unless you have been informed by your line manager that they are not required.

Start of Day (SOD)

This should be posted within 30 minutes of starting work and include:

• That you are online
• What you are planning to work on today (including links to anything relevant, for example a Jira release)
• Any meetings that day as a bullet per meeting, along with the length of the meeting
• If there is an agenda for the meetings then it should be linked
• Optionally, any dependencies you have on your current tasks
• Optionally, any blockers you have on your current tasks
• Optionally, any questions you may have about your current tasks
• Optionally, any changes to your normal working schedule

End of Day (EOD)

This should be how you sign off for the day and include:

• That you are finishing for the day
• A brief update on work you achieved during the day
• A list of the meetings you attended and their length
• Link to Slack notes from meetings
• Optionally, an update on any tasks with pressing timescales or anything you know had a deadline
• Optionally, if you are on a task that takes longer, an update on when you think the next version will be available for review
• Optionally, any questions that may have come up during the day
• Optionally, any dependencies that may have arisen during the day

AI and Technology Innovation

We are going through a revolution in technology with all things AI. As such, it is critical that in start-of-day and end-of-day messages you include relevant details on how you have leveraged these technologies and techniques, anything you learned, and anything useful for others to know.

AI fluency will be a factor in overall performance grading during reviews. This is a strong place to demonstrate your willingness and effort in this area.

Manager Responsibilities

Managers are responsible for accountability on the quality of their team's communication.

All managers must:

• Generally emoji respond to their staff's SOD and EOD messages
• Respond with questions, queries, and guidance when required
• Ideally acknowledge SOD and EOD messages with emojis for any indirect reports (managers of managers)
• Ensure that managers reporting to them follow these same responsibilities

Good clear communication is the backbone of the business, and it is a collective effort.

Guidance

• Generally an SOD or EOD message should take about 5-10 minutes to write
• A good pattern is to keep your own notes and todos in a scratchpad through the day, then convert this to an update
• Always try and do the work for the reader rather than make them do work:
  • Include links to things like other Slack messages, Confluence, Figma, and Jira
  • Do not write in a way where readers need to open many links to understand
  • Think about people reading the message who are not directly involved
• Try not to just list things that you worked on. More important points are:
  • How complete is that thing you are working on?
  • Do you have any questions?
  • Are there any blockers?
  • When do you expect to complete your current tasks?
• Do not include generic statements like "meetings"
• Be generally conversational and polite

Good Practice

Good Examples

Slack example:

SOD

Meetings:

• Studio/CMS/API Standup (9:30, 15m)
• Integrations (9:45, 15m)
• NBA Content Daily (15:45, 30m)

NBA

• Manage the reorganisation of Logos Media Libraries for completion tomorrow.
• Complete actions from yesterday's content meeting.
• Create Jira tickets for bugs raised yesterday in nba-storyteller-shared.

Other

• Start an audit of team Airtables to find areas of duplication and outdated information as discussed here.

Slack example:

EOD

Meetings:

• Studio/CMS/API Standup (9:30, 15m)
• Integrations (9:45, 15m)
• NBA Content Daily (15:45, 30m)

NBA

Managed the reorganisation of Logos Media Libraries with multiple troubleshooting huddles needed; on track for completion tomorrow.

Completed actions from yesterday's content meeting. No new actions from today.

Created Jira tickets for bugs raised yesterday in nba-storyteller-shared. The urgent Studio bug has already been resolved.

Other

Started an audit of team Airtables. Findings so far recorded here. Based on progress today this will take 3-4 more days to complete.

Bad Examples

Slack example:

SOD

Meetings:

• Standups, Integrations, NBA Content Daily

Other

• Logos Media Libraries work.
• NBA actions.
• Create Jira tickets.
• Audit of team Airtables.

Slack example:

EOD

Meetings:

• Standups, Integrations, NBA Content Daily

Other

• Not finished the Airtables audit yet.

FAQs

Isn't This Just the Same as a Stand Up?

No.

• This provides glanceable visibility across the whole company in an async format.
• Anyone can respond in a thread in order to clarify, steer, or query.
• These updates are to the individual, not the team or area.

Isn't This Just the Same as Jira?

No. Jira is what we use for task management. We do not need these status updates to be a list of Jira tasks when that information is readily available in Jira. Task management is about knowing who is working on what across the whole team, knowing the history of a given task and related discussion, and keeping track of things because Slack or calls are temporary.

Isn't This Just Another Way of Doing Time Tracking?

No. We are not using this for time tracking.