This post was originally published on the Prezi Blog on 20 May 2020.
Finding the time for a weekly team meeting can be difficult, and when your workplace is spread out across countries and timezones, it gets even harder to find a schedule that works for everyone. Our product management team and product marketing team came up with a new solution. Rather than having a recurring meeting each week, they replaced their weekly status meetings with short updates recorded on Prezi Video.
Making the change was an instant success. Recording the videos ahead of time freed up an hour-long timeslot in their calendars and allowed everyone to “attend” the weekly status meetings asynchronously, whenever it was convenient for them. And since they recorded their updates on Prezi Video, they could show their content directly next to their faces on screen, so they still got to see each other’s enthusiasm for their work.
What an async project status update looks like
An async project status update covers all the same info in a traditional real-time update, except that it uses shared tools to record and exchange info. For Prezi’s product management and product marketing team meeting, each team records their update on Prezi Video and shares it with everyone else in the team channel.
Since the product management team is based in Budapest, they always record their updates first. For Ben Holmes, Product Manager (PM) for Prezi Video, an async project status update is a huge relief on his busy schedule. As he puts it, “Prezi Video allows me to clear up my schedule by efficiently participating in meetings asynchronously through recorded video. Many times I’m double-booked, and often I can avoid the meetings by sending a video instead.”
Watch the PM update for week 19 that he recorded:
By the time Channing Adler, Product Marketing Manager (PMM) for Prezi Video, starts work in the morning in San Francisco, Ben’s video is waiting for her to view. She has the time to watch it and provide feedback in the team channel, or include a response in her own update.
Check out her recording for the PMM update for week 19.
The product team in Budapest will watch her video when they start work the next day, and provide responses and feedback. “Their questions and feedback are waiting for me in our team’s channel when I start work the next day,” says Channing on the ease of using Prezi Video for async meetings. “It keeps our collaboration so clear and simple!”
Share complex ideas and communicate visually
Prezi Video enables you to articulate complex ideas that can be difficult to communicate without speaking face-to-face. Unlike an in-person meeting, when you provide an asynchronous update on Prezi Video, you’re able to outline your comments before recording and make sure you say exactly what you want to say.
Ben often uses Prezi Video outside of his updates with Channing and the product marketing team. “Whenever I have complex ideas to share, I do it in Prezi Video. That way I’m sure my message gets across correctly, and my coworkers can consume and react to it asynchronously.”
Unlike a traditional video recording, Prezi Video puts your content on the screen right alongside you, adding a visual element to your message that can make complex concepts easier to understand. Adding content to a video is simple in the Prezi Video editor — as Channing says, “I love that in a few minutes a week, I am able to record a simple video that visually communicates my marketing plans and updates to my colleagues.”
Create your own async team updates on Prezi Video
If you’re interested in eliminating more meetings from your busy schedule, try incorporating async status updates and team updates in your workplace. As the product and product marketing teams at Prezi have proved, it’s easy to use Prezi Video to share info and exchange ideas even when you’re not in the same office. Create your own async update today.