Most software teams spend more time in meetings than writing code or designing screens. Status updates. Sprint planning. Standups. Design reviews. Retrospectives. All necessary, right?
Not anymore.
At To DO BIG, our clients work with a squad of AI agents managed by a human PM. The result? 90% fewer meetings, without losing speed, quality, or communication.
The Meeting Tax
Let's break down a "standard" 2-week sprint for a typical product team:
- Sprint Planning: 2 hours (Monday, Week 1)
- Daily Standups: 15 minutes × 10 days = 2.5 hours
- Design Review: 1 hour (Wednesday, Week 1)
- Mid-Sprint Check-in: 1 hour (Monday, Week 2)
- Sprint Demo: 1 hour (Friday, Week 2)
- Retrospective: 1 hour (Friday, Week 2)
- "Quick syncs" and ad-hoc calls: ~3 hours
Total: 11.5 hours per person, per 2-week sprint. That's nearly 30% of your working hours spent talking about work instead of doing it.
"We don't schedule meetings to coordinate agents. The agents coordinate themselves."
How We Eliminated 90% of Meetings
Here's the breakdown:
1. Async Task Assignment (Replaces: Sprint Planning)
You submit a request via your client board. Your human PM reviews it, breaks it into tasks, and assigns them to the appropriate agents (Strategist, Designer, Engineer, etc.). All asynchronously. No calendar invites required.
Time saved: 2 hours → 0 hours.
2. Agent-to-Agent Communication (Replaces: Standups)
Our agents don't need standups. They share context through a shared workspace. If the Engineer agent needs a design clarification, it queries the Designer agent directly. If the QA agent spots a bug, it files a ticket with the Engineer agent. All automated, all logged, all traceable.
Time saved: 2.5 hours → 0 hours.
3. Daily PM Digest (Replaces: Status Updates, Check-ins, Demos)
Instead of hopping on a call to see what's been done, your human PM sends you a crisp daily update. It includes:
- What shipped yesterday
- What's in progress today
- Any blockers (rare, but they happen)
- Links to staging environments, Figma files, or PRs
You read it when you have time. No calendar disruption. No context switching.
Time saved: 3 hours → 10 minutes (to read the update).
4. Direct Feedback on Deliverables (Replaces: Design Reviews)
When the Designer agent finishes a mockup, it's posted to your client board. You click on it, leave comments directly on the design ("Move this button down," "Use green instead of blue"), and the Designer agent gets to work. No need to schedule a meeting.
Time saved: 1 hour → 5 minutes (to leave feedback).
5. Automated Retrospectives (Replaces: Retros)
At the end of every sprint, the Analyst agent generates a performance report: What went well? What slowed us down? What should we optimize next sprint? Your human PM reviews it, summarizes key takeaways, and shares recommendations. Again, all async.
Time saved: 1 hour → 10 minutes (to read the summary).
What About "Collaboration"?
This is the pushback we always get: "But meetings foster collaboration! You can't just eliminate them."
Here's the truth: Most meetings are not collaborative. They're performative.
Real collaboration happens when people are unblocked, aligned on goals, and have the context they need to make decisions. Meetings are just one way to achieve that—and often the least efficient one.
In our model, collaboration happens through:
- Shared context: All agents have access to the same spec, designs, and codebase
- Transparent progress: You can see what's being worked on in real-time via your client board
- Direct feedback loops: You comment on work directly, agents respond within hours
It's collaboration without the calendar tax.
When We Do Meet
To be clear, we don't eliminate all meetings. We keep the ones that actually matter:
- Kickoff call (30 min): To align on goals, scope, and KPIs at the start of a project
- Optional mid-project check-in (30 min): If you want to talk strategy or ask questions
- Final handoff (30 min): To demo the finished product and train your team
That's it. 1.5 hours total for a 4-week project. Compare that to the 23 hours you'd spend in a traditional agency model.
The Bottom Line
Meetings aren't evil. They're just expensive. Every hour spent in a meeting is an hour not spent designing, coding, or shipping.
By replacing synchronous, calendar-driven coordination with asynchronous, agent-driven workflows, we've unlocked speed without sacrificing quality.
Your team can do the same. Start by asking: "Could this meeting be an email? Or a Loom video? Or a comment thread?"
The answer is almost always yes.