Last article, I showed you how our CRM became the actual workspace. Updates in real-time, questions answered in context, status always visible.
Natural question: “So what happened to your daily standup?”
It died. Quietly. Nobody misses it.
The Last Standup
May 14th. 10:00 AM. Three of us on a call.
“I’ll go first,” I said. “Yesterday I updated the warehouse optimization proposal. Today I’m waiting on client feedback. No blockers.”
Maria: “I had a call with the logistics client. Notes are in the CRM. Today I’m following up on pricing questions. No blockers.”
Alex: “Yesterday I finished the workflow analysis. Today I’m starting the implementation doc. No blockers.”
Fifteen minutes. We’d just verbally repeated information that was already in the CRM. Updated the night before.
I looked at my screen. The CRM pipeline view showed everything we’d just said. Status. Last activity. Next steps. All visible. All current.
“Why are we doing this?” I asked.
Silence.
“Everything we just said is already in the CRM. We updated it yesterday. Anyone can see it anytime.”
More silence.
“What if we just… stopped?”
That was our last standup.
What We Thought Would Happen
Panic. Miscommunication. People working in silos. Projects falling through cracks.
The classic fear:
“If we don’t sync daily, how will we know what’s happening?”
Week one felt weird. Morning came. No standup. Just… start working. It felt like we’d skipped something important.
But nothing broke.
Client questions got answered. Projects moved forward. Blockers got raised and resolved. All without a daily ceremony.
What Actually Happened
Week one
We kept working like standup still existed. Updated the CRM diligently. Checked it multiple times a day. Over-communicated in comments because we were nervous about the silence.
Week two
Started trusting the system. Realized that checking the CRM once in the morning gave better information than standup ever did. Because it had details. Context. History. Not just “working on X, no blockers.”
Week four
Someone had an actual blocker. Posted it in the project thread at 11 AM. Alex saw it by 11:15. They hopped on a call. Solved it by noon.
That’s when it clicked. Async doesn’t mean slow. It means you sync when you actually need to, not on a schedule.
Month three
Client commented that we’re “the most responsive team they work with.“
Not because we’re in meetings all day. Because information is always available and questions get real answers fast.
What Standup Was Really Doing
Standup served three functions. Only one was legitimate.
Function 1: Status broadcast
Everyone shares what they’re working on. Manager knows what’s happening. Team has visibility.
Problem: CRM does this better. Always current. More detail. Searchable. Available 24/7, not just during standup.
Status broadcast is solved by proper documentation, not by scheduling a meeting.
Function 2: Blocker surfacing
Someone mentions they’re stuck. Team helps.
Problem: Standup is the worst time to solve blockers. You’ve got 15 minutes. Eight people waiting. You can’t deep-dive into a technical problem.
What works: Post the blocker when it happens. The right person sees it. You have a focused conversation. Actually solve it instead of noting it and “following up later.”
Function 3: Social connection
Seeing your team. Casual chat before the meeting. Feeling like you’re working together.
This one’s real. And we lost it.
But standup was expensive social connection. Fifteen minutes daily, mandatory attendance, scheduled at fixed time.
Better solution: Optional coffee chats. Monthly team lunch. Slack channel for random stuff. Social time that’s actually social, not disguised as a work ceremony.
The Alternative That Actually Works
No standup doesn’t mean no communication. It means better communication.
Morning routine now:
Open CRM. Two minutes. See:
- Which deals moved yesterday
- What blockers exist
- Who needs help with what
- What’s due today
That’s better information than standup ever gave. Because it’s written. With context. With links to relevant docs.
Need to coordinate with someone? Comment on the deal or task. They see it within an hour. You have a conversation with full context visible.
Actual blocker? Post it immediately. Not “I’ll mention it in tomorrow’s standup.” Right now. The person who can help sees it and responds.
Async status updates look like this:
Deal: Warehouse Optimization
Last updated: Yesterday 4:30 PMStatus: Proposal sent, awaiting feedback
Next: Follow up if no response by Thursday
Blocker: NoneNotes: Client asked about integration with existing system. Confirmed we can work with their current setup.
That’s better than “working on warehouse project, no blockers.”
Because it has specifics. Anyone reading it knows exactly where things stand.
What We Gained
Time:
Fifteen minutes daily doesn’t sound like much. But it’s 1.25 hours per week. Per person. For three people, that’s 3.75 hours weekly. Almost 200 hours yearly.
That’s not the real gain though.
Focus:
No daily interruption at 10 AM. You can start deep work at 9 and actually stay in it. Flow state isn’t broken by a scheduled ceremony.
Flexibility:
Work when you’re productive. Early morning person? Start at 7. Night owl? Start at 10. Nobody’s waiting for you at standup.
Better information:
Written updates have details. Verbal updates are summaries. Details matter when you’re trying to help someone or understand a blocker.
Real-time response:
Blocker appears at 2 PM? Post it at 2 PM. Get help by 3 PM. Don’t wait until tomorrow’s standup to mention it.
What We Lost
Honestly? Not much.
The “everyone aligned” feeling. But that was an illusion. Hearing someone say “working on the proposal” doesn’t mean you understand what they’re doing. Reading their detailed CRM update does.
The casual chat before standup. We replaced this with intentional social time. Better conversations. Not rushed because a meeting’s about to start.
The forcing function to update status. Some people needed the daily reminder. But those people now have a different forcing function: if it’s not in the CRM, nobody knows you did it. That’s motivation enough.
When Standup Makes Sense
We’re three people. Same timezone. All senior. We know our work.
Standup probably makes sense for:
- Large teams where people don’t know what others are doing
- Junior teams that need daily coaching
- Distributed teams across many timezones that rarely overlap
But even then, question whether standup is solving a problem or masking one.
If people only know what’s happening because of standup, your documentation is broken. Fix that instead of scheduling around it.
If juniors need daily guidance, maybe they need better onboarding or clearer task descriptions. Standup is a bandaid.
If timezone coordination is hard, async is even more important. Don’t force someone to join at 6 AM or 10 PM for a status meeting.
The Pattern
This is the fourth article about removing synchronous ceremonies.
First: Measured the overhead. 11 hours weekly in meetings for three people.
Second: Went async-first. Documentation over conversation. Recovered 21 hours weekly.
Third: Made CRM the source of truth. Updates in real-time, not after the fact.
Now: Killed daily standup. Added 3.75 hours weekly. But more importantly, added uninterrupted focus time.
The pattern: every ceremony we removed had a legitimate purpose. But it was solving the problem badly.
Status visibility? Solved better by proper CRM usage.
Blocker resolution? Solved better by real-time communication.
Team alignment? Solved better by clear documentation.
Meetings became habit. We kept doing them because “that’s how Agile works.” Forgot to ask whether they were actually helping.
Six Months Without Standup
On-time delivery: 97% (from 89%).
Team stress: subjectively way down.
Time spent in ceremonies: down 70%.
But the thing nobody measures: work quality.
When you’re not interrupted daily at 10 AM, you can tackle complex problems. Load the entire context into your head. Design better solutions. Catch edge cases you’d miss in fragmented time.
Our process optimization work got better. Not because we’re smarter. But because we have the mental space to actually think.
That’s what standup was costing. Not just fifteen minutes. The context switch. The fragmentation. The inability to go deep because you know you’ll be interrupted soon.
What This Actually Requires
You can’t just cancel standup and hope it works.
You need:
Real-time documentation
CRM, project docs, task boards—whatever. But it has to be current. If people update it “eventually,” you’re back to “quick sync” requests and status confusion.
Cultural buy-in
If one person insists on verbal updates, they’ll Slack everyone asking for status. Ruins the whole system.
Trust
You have to trust people are doing the work even if you don’t see them in a daily meeting. If you need standup to verify people are working, you have a different problem.
Alternate communication channels
Standup’s gone, but questions still exist. You need fast async communication. We use Slack, but only for actual questions that need quick response. Status updates stay in CRM.
The Honest Truth
First week without standup, I wondered if we’d made a mistake.
It felt too easy. Too quiet. Surely we were missing something important.
Six months later, the idea of going back to daily standups sounds exhausting.
Scheduling 15 minutes every morning. Everyone stops what they’re doing. We verbally repeat information that’s already written. Then we all try to remember what everyone said.
Why would we do that when the information is already visible, always current, and available whenever anyone needs it?
We wouldn’t. And we don’t.
