Building lean and asynchronous processes

Cross-functional collaboration is critical, especially in early-stage environments. But with speed being crucial in the early-stage phase, it’s essential to avoid unnecessary meetings. Unnecessary meetings can be highly detrimental to the effective workflow of people, slowing them down and as a consequence, slowing down the company itself. Hence, it’s important to critically assess whether a meeting is needed. A balance of clear processes, asynchronous communication, targeted tools and meetings (when truly needed) helps steer clear of chaos, while also preventing an overly structured and slow, bureaucratic environment.

Usually, as a product manager, these processes will have already been built by someone before you. However, if you join an early-stage startup, you will be responsible for building these processes and perhaps even more. After all, in an early-stage startup, we are wearing multiple hats.

So, here’s how you can streamline collaboration, reduce unnecessary meetings and maintain high standards of quality and alignment.

Zeitrafferfotografie von Autolichtern (Image: Kelly on pexels.com)

“Alignment”—one of the keywords we hear often as product managers. Now, while alignment is often the goal, alignment meetings don’t always lead to effective alignment. One way to streamline alignment efforts is to combine asynchronous processes with discussion meetings, if necessary, while maintaining great meeting hygiene.

First, create a detailed kickoff document using a collaborative online tool. This will help you organize your thoughts, document the discussion and create a single source of truth that everyone can refer to. It should comprehensively outline the product vision and dive deep into whatever you wish to discuss. Kicking off a new feature? Include information you’d mention in a product requirements document: explain the feature, the reasoning behind it, how it would be implemented, success metrics, who needs to be involved, as well as the timeline and other necessary information. The key is that the document should be concise but still include everything needed to understand the circumstances and goals—no fluff.

Now, instead of immediately scheduling a lengthy kickoff meeting, share the document with all relevant stakeholders. Relevance is key here. Invite them to provide feedback directly in the document and provide a clear deadline. This process allows team members to contribute thoughtfully on their own schedules, reducing the pressure and inefficiencies of live meetings.

Review all comments and address them asynchronously. Incorporate relevant changes, clarify points of confusion and ensure the final version reflects a shared understanding of the project’s objectives. This finalized document becomes the foundational reference for the project, ensuring every team member has clear and consistent information to guide their work. You’ll be able to clarify plenty of questions asynchronously. If it becomes clear that there are plenty of conflicting opinions about the document, that’s when you set up a streamlined meeting. The difference is that now, the meeting clearly addresses specific discussion points, with everyone already having deep insights into the challenges.

By replacing the traditional kickoff meeting with this method, you not only save time but also create an inclusive process where team members from different time zones or with conflicting schedules can participate fully. This approach creates transparency, clarity and collaboration while minimizing interruptions, ensuring that everyone is aligned on the product’s direction from the very beginning. It also paves the way for more productive meetings, ensuring that everyone has immersed themselves in the topic before the meeting.

To ensure that everything runs smoothly, it’s important to clarify who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed. One possible way to ensure clarity on this is to create a RACI matrix in a collaborative online tool and make it accessible to everyone. It clearly identifies who takes ownership of which part of the project or product. Again, you can create this asynchronously, using a deadline and scheduling discussion meetings if further clarification is needed. This review period enables everyone to confirm their roles, clarify any uncertainties and address potential overlaps or gaps in responsibilities. Questions can be resolved asynchronously through tools like Slack or email, keeping communication efficient and focused. This saves everyone valuable time that would otherwise be spent sitting in a meeting, confirming information that could have easily been collected by a single person asynchronously.

By establishing this process, you eliminate the need for repeated clarification meetings. Team members know exactly whom to contact for specific needs or dependencies, fostering autonomy and reducing delays. A well-maintained RACI matrix becomes a living document that supports accountability and transparency throughout the project, ensuring every team member is fully aligned.

Transparency greatly helps to keep processes lean and productive. It reduces the need for sync meetings and other check-ins, providing the option to keep meetings focused on discussing challenges and complex matters, instead of sharing updates. To ensure this, project management tools are needed. Trello, Asana, or Jira can be helpful, as well as Slack or Teams for quick updates.

In this system, teams use the project management tool to log key updates on their tasks. These updates should cover three main points: what has been completed, what work is planned next and any blockers or challenges they are facing. In parallel, a shared Slack channel or similar communication platform is used for daily or weekly updates following the same structure.

A set time is established for these updates to be posted each day or week, ensuring that everyone remains informed without needing to gather for a live meeting. Team members can review progress at their convenience and product managers can monitor the updates, identifying blockers or critical issues that require attention. Usually, plenty of questions and challenges can be easily addressed asynchronously. If there are larger-ranging issues, you can create meetings, including everyone who is relevant to the issue or would benefit from the information. After the meeting, make sure to document the solution so everyone can access it, ensuring that even those who couldn’t attend the meeting will be able to review it and a single source of truth is created.

This process preserves the transparency and accountability of stand-ups while saving valuable time for focused work and avoiding back-and-forth email chains. Meetings are reserved for only the most critical discussions that cannot be handled asynchronously, ensuring that team productivity remains high and communication remains clear.

Recording demos instead of presenting life also contributes towards a more effective work environment. The process begins with teams creating short video demonstrations of their work using tools such as Loom or Zoom. It is particularly helpful to create guidelines or templates up front about how these demos should be structured to promote consistency. These demos can capture everything from product features and prototypes to marketing strategies or customer feedback. Once the demo is recorded, it is shared with the relevant stakeholders, with a set deadline for feedback, typically 48 hours, to ensure that all parties have enough time to review the content on their own schedules. The same strategy we applied to previous processes.

By relying on recorded demos, teams can track progress more effectively, provide constructive feedback and align on next steps without the pressure of coordinating multiple live sessions. The process not only enhances collaboration but also saves time and resources, making it a valuable tool for milestone reviews in product development or other cross-functional projects.

Black Camera Recorder (Image: Donald Tong on pexels.com)

By leveraging tools for asynchronous updates, recorded demos and centralized documentation, we can streamline collaboration while maintaining alignment. Setting clear deadlines for feedback and prioritizing essential meetings ensures that teams remain focused on their work without sacrificing communication or quality.

The goal is not to eliminate meetings entirely, but to make them more focused and efficient, reserved for issues that truly require discussion—those that are complex enough that only a meeting can effectively resolve them.

By handling the initial steps asynchronously, every team member has the opportunity to review materials and ask questions at their own pace. Meetings should only occur when absolutely necessary. This approach prevents unnecessary meetings and ensures that discussions remain efficient, as it forces the implementation of better meeting hygiene through the process itself. 

But as always in startups, flexibility is the key. Be open to change, communicate with team members and adapt processes to reflect the changes the startup lives through as it grows.