The most important result of a meeting is the set of decisions, outcomes, and next steps or action items that are the result of the meeting. The best summary after a meeting captures that crisply and clearly communicates that to everyone on the team and others who are impacted by the team’s work. I found that as a PM, making sure this was effectively communicated was critical.

This doesn’t suggest that the role is to capture every little thing that was said like a court reporter. The PM should be an active participant in the meeting and guide discussions towards clear conclusions and next steps.

But as a PM, I found that if we just assumed everyone has their own notes and actions and don’t capture it in a central place, things sometimes got missed. Great notes and communication were instrumental in making everything more effective