Fill this in the last two minutes of the call, while everyone’s still on. It kills the “wait, what did we decide?” thread the next day and turns talk into tracked work.
Capture before anyone drops off:
- Decisions: What did we actually agree? Write it as a statement, not a discussion — “We’re shipping X on Friday,” not “we talked about shipping.”
- Owners: One name per decision or action. “The team” owns nothing; a person owns it.
- Next action: The single concrete next step for each item — specific enough to start without another meeting.
- Due date: A real date, not “soon.” If it’s genuinely open, write “no date — revisit [date]” so it doesn’t vanish.
- Open questions: Anything unresolved, with who’s chasing the answer.
- Follow-up: Whether a next meeting is needed, and if not, how you’ll confirm the work landed.
Drop-in template:
Meeting: __________ Date: __________
Decisions:
- <decision> — owner: <name>
Actions:
- <next step> — owner: <name> — due: <date>
Open questions:
- <question> — chasing: <name>
Follow-up: <next meeting / async check-in>After the call: paste the actions into wherever work actually lives (tracker, board, task list) and share the note in the meeting thread within the hour, while it’s fresh.
