Stop the Meeting Madness: Software Engineers Need Focus, Not Redundant Reviews

In many engineering teams, meetings are multiplying like rabbits. Product owners, eager for clarity and alignment, often schedule extra review or sync meetings on top of stand-ups, sprint planning, backlog grooming, and demos.

But here’s the reality: Agile already has a meeting structure that, when used correctly, should suffice.

Each additional ad-hoc meeting:

Interrupts focus time engineers need for deep work

Adds context-switching overhead

Signals a lack of trust in the existing Agile process

If you’re a product owner or stakeholder, consider leveraging existing ceremonies for your questions and clarifications. Use asynchronous updates (Slack, Jira comments, Loom videos) for non-urgent issues. Trust your engineers to deliver and bring blockers to stand-ups or retrospectives.

And engineers: it’s okay to push back. Advocate for your focus time. Suggest handling topics in existing meetings or async channels.

Agile is meant to reduce waste and increase collaboration. Don’t let unnecessary meetings steal the flow state that actually ships value.