5 exercises — deliver a daily standup update that is concise, well-structured, and easy for the team to follow.
The classic three-part standup structure
Yesterday: what you completed (past tense)
Today: what you are working on (present/future)
Blockers: anything stopping your progress
Keep it short — aim for under a minute; details go in follow-ups
Speak in outcomes, not a play-by-play of every keystroke
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which is the most effective standup update?
A strong update follows Yesterday / Today / Blockers and speaks in outcomes: "finished the login API and got it merged" tells the team exactly where things stand. It is specific yet concise.
The first option is a keystroke-by-keystroke play-by-play — too much detail for standup. "I did stuff" is too vague to be useful, and "everything is fine I think" gives the team nothing to act on. The goal is enough specificity for the team to coordinate, delivered in well under a minute.
2 / 5
You completed a task yesterday and are continuing another today. Which uses the correct tenses?
Standups naturally use past tense for completed work ("Yesterday I finished the report") and present continuous or "going to" for current work ("Today I'm working on the dashboard"). This tense contrast makes the timeline instantly clear.
Mixing them up ("Yesterday I am finishing") confuses the listener about what is done versus in progress. Dropping articles and verbs ("Yesterday finishing report") sounds abrupt and unclear. Clean tense use is a small thing that makes your update easy to follow.
3 / 5
Your update is getting long because you want to explain a technical detail. What should you do?
Standup is for coordination, not deep dives. Give the headline and explicitly offer a follow-up ("happy to go into detail after standup") so the people who need the detail get it without making everyone else sit through it. This is the "take it offline" principle.
Explaining everything in standup makes it run long and loses the room; skipping your update leaves the team uninformed; a wall of text mid-standup is distracting. Knowing what belongs in standup versus a follow-up keeps the meeting fast.
4 / 5
You have nothing notable to report because you were in meetings all day. What do you say?
Even a quiet day deserves a clear, honest one-liner: state why ("in planning sessions most of yesterday, so no code progress") and what is next ("back on the search feature"). This keeps the team informed and sets expectations.
"Pass" and "skip me" leave a gap the team has to wonder about. "I did nothing" is self-deprecating and inaccurate — meetings are work. A brief, factual update is always better than silence, and naming the reason prevents anyone assuming you were stuck.
5 / 5
How should you reference a teammate you need to coordinate with in your update?
Naming the person and the plan ("pairing with Sara on the migration — we'll sync at 11") makes coordination concrete and visible to the whole team, so dependencies are clear and Sara is not surprised.
Vague references ("someone needs to help me") force people to guess; "figure it out" is hostile; and silently waiting for someone to notice wastes time. Standup is the moment to surface who you are working with and when, so the team can self-organise around it.