Did It In Minutes: The Art of Documenting Meeting NotesΒΆ

Authors:Mo Nishiyama
Time:11:40 - 12:00
Session:http://docs.writethedocs.org/2014/na/talks/#mo-nishiyama-did-it-in-minutes-the-art-of-documenting-meeting-notes
Link:

See also: “Did It In a Minute”, Hall/Oates

Release notes and documentation are like the Corvette that everyone wants to write/read. But meeting notes are the garbage truck: plebian, under appreciated, and mind numbing. Meetings can be toxic and awful places to be.

When Mo was assigned to talk meeting minutes, he realized that he’d been viewing meeting minutes as regurgitation, when they’re really about curation.

  1. Understand your audience: who’s at the meeting, but also who’s not at the meeting? You’re not just writing for yourself.
  2. Once you understand your audience, you can create a shared need. What does the audience commonly need to know.
  3. Chronology doens’t matter; what happens at the beginning of the meeting doesn’t need to go a the top of the document.
  4. WTF: Write the Facts. You don’t need to record the “healthy discussions” or “heated discourse”.
  5. Engage the Subject Matter Experts: engage and ask questions before you make assumptions and publish incorrect interpretations.
  6. Make the action items clear: Who, What, When need to be defined.
  7. Use templates to save time: formatting, organization, etc. Helps save time for the writer.
  8. Use easter eggs to combat TL;DR

And there are exceptions, of course.

School board meetings require chronology. Depositions require regurgitation. And some organizations require style guide adherance, etc.