Running an online insights meeting isn’t the same as conducting one face-to-face. Teams and Zoom don’t lend themselves to dynamic discussions.

Whether it’s an internal insights meeting with colleagues or an external one with clinicians or patients, a slightly different approach is needed to get the most out of the meeting.

These are our top tips on how to ensure you are getting the most out of your online insights meetings:

  1. Be laser focused on what you want to get out of the meeting: Online meetings are less forgiving of loose agendas than face-to-face. They foster individual monologues rather than dynamic group discussion. It can therefore be difficult to interject and change the course of the conversation online, as opposed to when you’re in a room together. For instance, shouting into your mic to interrupt someone isn’t the same as raising your voice a little or using body language to do so when in person. As such you need to be really focused with your agenda for an online meeting to avoid the prospect of going off topic too often. Otherwise, it could be a lot of talking with little return.

  2. Ensure you are (and are seen as) the person in charge of the meeting: If you are the meeting owner, own the meeting. This is not to say you should be domineering or overly forceful. But being in charge of a meeting gives you greater control of the insights coming out of it, rather than hoping they will appear organically. This can be achieved by making sure you’re the one who instigates the introductions, sets out the agenda, asks the questions, and summarises what is said. 

  3. Don’t feel you have to explore everything everyone says: The first person who ‘monologues’ during an online meeting can influence the next 20 minutes of discussion if you let them dictate the agenda. If you instinctively know that their point isn’t of great value, don’t let it dominate discussion. 

  4. However, don’t be afraid to let the conversation go where it needs to: Balancing this with point 3 above is really important, and really difficult. Knowing when to move conversation on because it isn’t productive and knowing when to let it flow is crucial. A skill you will hone with practice.

  5. Use your gut (and knowledge) to achieve this balance: Trust your gut if it tells you you’re not getting what you need from an insights meeting. Your subject matter knowledge will influence this decision, but there is a lot to be said for ‘just knowing’ it’s not a worthwhile discussion.  

  6. To make sure everyone contributes, keep a tick list: It can be harder to track everyone’s input in an online meeting. Especially when the position of people on the screen changes as the meeting progresses. To help with this, prepare a tick box grid. If you have several rounds of questions, make sure you have one for each round. Then tick the corresponding name off when they’ve spoken. 

  7. Summarise Summarise Summarise: If you aren’t 100% clear what has been agreed, then it hasn’t been agreed. Often it can seem everyone is in agreement, but it is only when you clearly articulate that back to the group that you find out each person meant something slightly different. Regularly summarise what is being discussed to ensure you have clarity on the points being made.