If your team dreads the daily standup call, you’re not alone — a 15-minute meeting for five people is really over an hour of collective time, every single day, often just to say “working on the same thing as yesterday.” Async standups fix this by replacing the live call with a quick written check-in that everyone posts on their own schedule.
Table of Contents
This guide walks through exactly how to set one up: which tools to use, what questions to ask, how to keep it from turning into digital noise, and how to handle the moments when a real-time conversation is still the better call.
Quick Answer
Set up a recurring automated prompt (via a dedicated bot like Geekbot or DailyBot, or Slack’s built-in Workflow Builder on paid Slack plans) that asks each team member 2-4 short questions once a day. People answer whenever it fits their schedule before a set deadline, answers post to a shared channel or thread, and anyone can scan them in under a minute — no meeting required.
Setting Up Your Async Standup, Step by Step
Start with the questions, not the tool. Keep it to three or four: What did you work on yesterday? What are you working on today? Anything blocking you? (Optional: any wins or things the team should know?) More than that and people stop reading each other’s updates.
Pick a delivery method. If your team is already on a paid Slack plan (Workflow Builder isn’t included on Slack’s free plan), its built-in Workflow Builder can post a daily question thread without adding extra software to your stack. If you’re on Slack’s free tier or want reminders, timezone handling, skip-on-vacation logic, and a searchable dashboard of past updates, a dedicated bot is worth it. Geekbot is a well-known option built specifically for Slack and Microsoft Teams standups, with a free tier for small teams (up to 10 participants) and paid plans priced per active participant. DailyBot is a similar option that runs in Slack, Teams, Google Chat, or Discord, also with a free starter tier and low-cost per-user paid plans. Standuply leans toward Agile teams that want standups alongside retros and planning poker, and even supports voice or video replies for a more personal touch.
Set a submission window, not a start time. Instead of “standup is at 9am,” say “post your update anytime before 11am your time.” This is the whole point of going async — it respects different time zones and work schedules instead of forcing everyone onto one clock.
Route it somewhere visible but skippable. Post updates to a dedicated #standup channel (not your main team channel) so people can check it when they want instead of getting pinged constantly. Thread replies under the daily prompt to keep things organized.
Assign one person to actually read it. Someone — usually the team lead — should skim every update, flag blockers, and follow up directly with whoever needs help. An async standup that nobody reads is just everyone typing into a void.
Making It Actually Work Long-Term
The biggest failure mode is treating async standups as a status report for management instead of a coordination tool for the team. Keep the tone informal and keep questions focused on what teammates need to know to help each other, not on justifying how someone spent their day.
Handle blockers immediately, not the next day. The moment someone flags a blocker in their update, whoever can help should jump into a DM or a quick call right then. Async is for routine updates; it’s not meant to replace real-time conversation when something’s actually stuck.
Keep a live meeting in your back pocket for the moments that need it — a gnarly technical decision, a sensitive conversation, or a new project kickoff. Async standups replace the meetings that exist purely to sync status, not every meeting your team will ever need.
Review the format every month or two. Questions that felt useful in week one can go stale. If people start copy-pasting “same as yesterday,” it’s a sign to change the questions or shorten the cadence to a few times a week instead of daily.
Tips and Common Mistakes
Don’t make it mandatory to the minute. Rigid deadlines defeat the purpose of async work — give a generous window instead of a hard 9am cutoff.
Don’t let it become a second meeting. If people start replying to every update in real time, you’ve just moved the standup into a chat window instead of eliminating it.
Don’t skip the read-and-respond step. The value of a standup isn’t in writing the update, it’s in someone acting on what it says.
Do pair async standups with a weekly live sync. Many remote teams keep one short weekly call for the things that don’t fit into a written update — team morale, bigger-picture context, and open discussion.
Do test a couple of tools before committing. A bot’s free tier (like Geekbot’s or DailyBot’s) is enough for many small teams to get started; only add a paid plan or Slack’s Workflow Builder once you actually need timezone automation, vacation handling, or reporting at scale.
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async standups FAQs
What is an async standup?
It’s a daily team check-in done through written messages instead of a live call. Each person answers a short set of questions (what they did, what they’re doing next, any blockers) on their own time, usually through an automated Slack or Teams prompt.
Do async standups work for small teams?
Yes, and they’re often easier to start with a small team — you can use a bot’s free tier, like Geekbot or DailyBot, without much setup, and adjust the questions as you learn what your team actually needs to know from each other.
Will async standups replace all our meetings?
No, they’re meant to replace meetings that only exist for status updates. Keep a live meeting for decisions, brainstorming, or anything that benefits from real-time back-and-forth.
What tool should I use to run async standups?
Dedicated bots like Geekbot, DailyBot, or Standuply offer free tiers for small teams and are the easiest way to start. If your team is already on a paid Slack plan, Workflow Builder is a built-in alternative — note it isn’t available on Slack’s free plan.
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Photo by kuu akura on Unsplash.