All-Team Meetings

When the VP of Customer Success at Atlassian reached out, her all-team meetings were missing the structure needed to engage employees effectively. The format had become a freeform announcement and live Q&A session where the VP shared updates and responded to unfiltered questions. While transparent, the lack of structure limited the impact of the meetings. The use of time was not optimized and the sessions lacked consistency and energy.

The VP wanted her communications to inspire confidence, align her global team, and reinforce culture. To achieve that, she needed a repeatable structure for her all-team meetings, as well as complementary channels for questions, office hours, and more interactive touchpoints.

Note: Details have been adapted for confidentiality.

The All-Team Meeting Blueprint

A Strategic Approach to Internal Communications

Challenge

The Vice President of Customer Success at Atlassian engaged me to help build a structured communications infrastructure for her organization. Her primary objective was to ensure her team's meetings were effective, engaging, and aligned with key business goals.

Working closely with her chief of staff, I quickly identified a critical gap: the VP's all-team meetings were entirely unstructured. With the recent acquisition of several new organizations, the overall Customer Success team had grown much larger in a short amount of time, increasing her need to communicate to everyone more frequently.

Current meetings were an informal, free-form platform where the VP shared her updates and the team could address concerns in a live Q&A. While intended to be open and transparent, this approach lacked a clear agenda and purpose. The live, unvetted Q&A format meant that questions could be disorganized or inappropriate, and the meeting could easily veer off-topic, undermining its potential as a strategic communication tool. The result was a missed opportunity to foster a cohesive and inspired team.

Solution

To transform the all-hands meeting into a strategic and highly valued event, I designed a repeatable, structured agenda with a clear narrative and flow. The new agenda introduced several core components to ensure every minute served a purpose, building a foundation for all of the VP's team communications, including office hours and Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions.

The redesigned agenda included the following segments:

The Agenda Blueprint

Pre-Show: A dedicated 10-minute segment before the meeting's official start. This was designed for team members who typically join early to enjoy a fun video reel featuring team offsite photos and new family additions (both human and pet). The pre-recording can posted after the meeting for those who missed it.
Welcome and Kick-off: A brief, 5-minute segment to officially open the meeting. This component was designed for essential team-wide announcements, welcoming new hires, and celebrating work anniversaries.
State of the Union: A crucial 15-minute section where the VP and leadership could share business updates, highlight recent wins, and provide a clear look back at the previous quarter. This also included a forward-looking perspective on adjustments for the upcoming quarter.
Product Spotlight: A 10-minute deep dive into a new or recently updated tool or feature. This segment ensures the team is consistently educated on how product developments can benefit their customers.
Success Story Showcase: A 10-minute session where a team or individual highlights a recent customer success story. This is a powerful way to share best practices, celebrate victories, and inspire others by showcasing a blueprint for how to win over a customer.
Fireside Chat: A 15-minute conversation between the VP and a special guest from another organization. This segment adds a layer of inspiration and learning, allowing the team to gain external perspectives on leadership, best practices, and industry trends.
Q&A and Closing: A 5-minute wrap-up where the VP summarizes key takeaways and addresses a few pre-submitted questions from the team. This ensures that questions are thoughtful and screened in advance, allowing for more impactful and concise answers. Unanswered questions can be addressed during AMAs or Office Hours.
Post-Show: An optional segment after the meeting's official conclusion. This is a dedicated space for team members to give kudos and shout-outs, ending the meeting on a high note of gratitude and positive reinforcement.

Result

By implementing this new structure, the VP's all-team meetings were transformed from an unstructured platform into a professional and effective communications channel. The well-defined agenda created a clear purpose for each meeting, improved audience engagement, and allowed for the strategic curation of content. The new model ensured that different teams within the organization received visibility for their work, helping to break down silos and empowering the entire organization to stay informed and connected. (Note: The term "all-hands" is a historical term from the shipping industry and has been updated for better accessibility. The team now refers to these as "all-team" or "all-staff" meetings.)

Agenda Infographic

Leveraging my visual design and communication skills, I transformed the text agenda into a dynamic, infographic-style page hosted on the Customer Success organization's intranet (Confluence site), which I also helped build.

Note

This all-team meeting agenda structure is here to give you a sense of how I think and approach my work. I appreciate you respecting the time and thought behind it by not copying, sharing, or reusing it without my written permission.