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I was talking to a company not too long ago that would have regular “Product Defect Meetings.” Employees from all departments and all levels of seniority would take place in these meetings: management, engineers, customer service people, product managers, etc. At these meetings, people would point out bugs, defects, suggestions, and ideas for particular products and services.

The challenge of fostering effective communication between engineers and customer service is a problem for a lot of companies. I think a regular “Product Defect Meeting” is a good way to help break down some communication barriers. It provides an open forum for different employees to voice their concerns, suggestions, and observations. A lot of times just incorporating and following through with the idea of open meetings between different teams is half the battle. It’s as much as a mind set as a functional operation at a company.

At Product Defect Meetings and any meetings like it, something that is extremely important is taking notes and assigning tasks and responsibilities to people. It’s really easy for people to sit in a meeting for an hour or so and just yes everyone else to death.

An effective meeting leader is necessary to ensure the meetings are actually productive. If the meetings are productive (meaning: fixes and ideas come as a result of the groups meeting), then they’re worth every minute. If people are just talking about the same bugs and issues, then it’s a waste of everyone’s time.