10x your Meeting Productivity with this Simple Framework from the CEO of Twitch

Your boss, your team, and everyone you meet with will LOVE you for it, pinky promise.

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In my ongoing quest to rid the world of (bad) meetings, today I’d like to share with you the holy grail of meeting advice I recently heard from my friend Shaan Puri.

Let me set the scene.

Shaan’s company had just been acquired by Twitch and he was sitting down for his first 1-1 with the CEO, Emmet Shear.

“I wasn’t used to being an employee. I’m usually on the other side of the table. I showed up, started talking about what we’re doing, and he just stops me…”

“Hold up, what’s your question?”, asked Emmet, his eyes burning a hole through the back of Shaan’s head (not really but I’m spicing it up for dramatic effect).

Shaan wasn’t prepared.

“I haven’t gotten to that yet, I’m sharing the context.”

Ahh, the joys of going from CEO to employee.

That’s when Emmet shared some advice, a sort of “instruction manual” for how to work with him. He said, “There are four ways you can frame anything you’re going to tell me”:

1. As an FYI: "I'm doing this, I just wanted you to be in the loop."

2. For approval: "I'd like to do this, and I need your approval."

3. Help me decide: "I'm thinking about option A, B, or C and I could use your help making the decision."

4. Closing the loop: “Remember that thing we decided to do? I did it, and these were the results."

*chefs kiss*.. I love it. I thought back to my time as a startup exec and how, if my team members ever showed up to our meetings prepared with this framework, I would have been over the moon.

I also cringed thinking back to all the times I’ve met with managers throughout my career and rambled on for 20 minutes before getting to the point.

And look, I’m a big fan of idle chit-chat, or “shooting the shit” as the kids like to say (do kids still stay that?). But you’ll feel a lot better if you get your meeting objectives done before the small talk.

Here’s the key takeaway:

When asking for feedback, show up with an existing point of view.

This framework isn’t just useful for meetings. Use it in emails, community posts, or any time you’re coming to someone for feedback.

Vague questions get vague answers. Instead of coming to someone or a community with a vague question, tell them the options you're thinking through and exactly how they can help you make a decision. You’ll get a much more helpful answer.

I immediately put this framework into action with my consulting clients who often come to our calls with open-ended questions that take a long time to work through. Since they pay me by the hour, they’re literally throwing away money. I advised them to use this framework. It instantly made our consulting calls 10x more productive.

Instead of asking: “What platform do you think we should use for our community?”

They said (I’m paraphrasing): “I researched a number of community platforms and narrowed them down to these three options. Here’s why. Which one do you think is the best fit for us?”

Another client wanted to get my feedback on their onboarding process.

Instead of asking: “How do you think we should improve our onboarding?”

They said (again, paraphrasing): “I found that the copy on our welcome page is pretty generic, and after talking to a few new members, I believe that connecting them with a veteran member of the community will help them feel included. Is that the right approach? If so, what advice do you have for making these two areas more effective?”

Because they came with their own opinions, we were able to dive right into decision-making and execution, saving them time and money.

Use this framework, and you’ll never have a wasteful meeting again.

☑️ Put it into action:

• Take a look at your agenda for your next meeting with your boss or team. You’ll likely see a number of open-ended discussion topics. How can you reframe each item using one of the four options above?

• Review the next email you send out to your boss or team asking for feedback on something. How can you come prepared with your own opinions?

• Look at the last time you asked your community for feedback and rewrite it using this framework to see if you can make it more effective.

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Check out Shaan’s full video here to watch him share this story. He also shares a bunch of other lessons from his time working with Emmet. It’s all gold.

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Them Good Reads

1. Why do people participate in multiple communities? These researchers found that people participate in communities for three reasons: specific kinds of content and discussion, socialization in a homophilous community, and to optimize for attention from the largest possible audience. Thinking about writing a post summarizing my notes from this paper. Interested?

2. This reframing of goals into “continuous success” changed my entire worldview.

3. ‘Communitas’, not quite the same as ‘community’: “a concept introduced by the British cultural anthropologist Victor Turner in 1969. He defined communitas as ‘an unstructured or minimally structured group of individuals in a state of equality, solidarity, and togetherness’”. Good read from Jules Evans.

4. I had never heard of online communities referred to as “the cozy web” and I’m obsessed.

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Your turn.

I’ve got questions and you’ve got answers, don’t ya? Hit reply or comment:

1. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received on how to run effective meetings?

2. Substack’s new Notes tool feels like a Twitter for writers. It has me thinking about “niche social networks”. What do you think the difference is between an “online community” and a “niche social network”?

3. Have you hired someone for a community role recently? What “no bullshit” advice would you share with companies hiring for community?

4. How are you using ChatGPT or any other bots in your day-to-day work building community?

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That’s all for today! Thanks for reading and for sending me all your “in-the-potty” vibes last week. Lucca was a champ and potty training was a success!

Until next week!

Thanks for building community,

-David