Meetings and Rituals

In our group we have various forms of meetings. I expect that we take notes. You can try to be helped by a local LLM, using tools like hyprnote. Please inform participants that you use this tool.

In group meetings, project meetings, jour fixes we should always have a note taker assigned. This note taker is also responsible for collecting the action points and transferring them to the corresponding Notion database.

The Weekly Rhythm

Our rhythm is designed to reduce busywork while keeping enough structure that we stay connected and accountable.

• Monday: short sync check-in (standup) to align for the week and reflect briefly on the last one
• Wednesday: async update in the Group OS
• Friday: short sync (standup) to close the week, surface blockers, and make sure nothing important is drifting

Standups

When: Monday and Friday at 10:15 a.m. How long: Not longer than 15 minutes Where: In the office E021 Purpose: Share main goal for the day, raise any blockers

On Wednesday, share your update asynchronously in the Group OS. This replaces the in-person standup.

Jour Fixe

When: Individual slots, see calendar. Typically every week. How long: 1 hour, but we do not have to use the full hour. Where: In Kevin's office. Purpose: This is your meeting. You can use it to discuss your research, career, or any other topic you want to discuss with Kevin. It is often good to use it to align goals.

Preparation: By 6 p.m. the day before, prepare a written agenda. If there is no agenda, we will cancel the meeting. The agenda is most useful when you write in full sentences and paragraphs — add as much context as possible. (See Amazon Six Page Memos — we do not need to be that extensive, but we should strive for this direction.)

In every agenda, list the potential goals for the week you have in mind and describe the one you think is most important in one paragraph. This ensures we are aligned on where we are going and what is important.

Use the Jour Fixe page as a scratchpad throughout the week. When people add questions, thoughts, and updates between meetings, collaboration improves a lot: Kevin can often provide async feedback during the week, it gives him time to think deeply about certain points, and it creates a central place for batched discussion.

At the end of every jour fixe, we create a follow-up note together: what was committed, the deliverable, and the check-in date. This takes 60 seconds and keeps both of us honest.

Personal Development Discussion

When: A Jour Fixe slot, every six months How long: 1 hour Where: In Kevin's office Purpose: Discussing your personal development and have some session dedicated to bidirectional feedback. Please remind me if time has passed and we didn't schedule a meeting. Alignment on goals, hierarchical planning.

Monthly Group Day

When: Once per month (scheduled in advance) How long: Full day Where: Meeting room, see calendar Purpose: Our main shared anchor — talks, project reviews, collaborative workshops, and maintenance

Group Day replaces the weekly group meeting. Instead of brief weekly visibility, we invest in one deeper day per month.

Time	Activity
10:30–11:30	Talk 1 (30 min) + feedback. Start at 10:30 to allow Berlin commuters to arrive.
11:50–12:40	Talk 2 (30 min) + feedback
12:40–14:00	Lunch break
14:00–15:00	Pod-led project review
15:00–15:15	Break
15:15–16:30	Workshop or whiteboarding session
16:30–18:00	Maintenance

Talks should be polished — practiced beforehand and at the level you would show at a conference or external seminar. This is about quality over frequency.

Maintenance

The maintenance block at the end of Group Day is the official time for general housekeeping:

• Updating group website
• Updating Notion/checklists/documentation
• Updating/maintaining packages and servers
• Cleaning/refurbishing offices

Pod Check-ins

Pods handle weekly lightweight check-ins directly around the standups (e.g., a short conversation right after) and have one longer monthly session for project review and collaborative work.

See How We Collaborate for the full pod structure.

Quarterly Focus Week

Once per quarter, we cancel all routine recurring meetings for one full week. No standups, no jour fixes, no pod check-ins.

The purpose is to protect deep work — long stretches of uninterrupted time for thinking, writing, coding, or reading. Use this week for the work that needs concentration.

Quarterly Reviews

Each quarter we also:

• Review the project portfolio (see Project Lifecycle)
• Review benchmarking and tool governance

Ad Hoc Sessions

Schedule as needed:

• Deep-thinking sessions or project sprints
• Interview preparation
• Subgroup work on specific problems
• Feedback sessions on figures (these can be joined to a standup meeting if announced in advance)

How We Run Meetings

Let's try to stick to some of the ideas described here https://bounded-regret.ghost.io/principles-for-productive-group-meetings/:

If you're a speaker who feels nervous giving talks, remember that you're among friends whose ultimate goal is to help you do great research. This is the time to take risks, get feedback, and grow. Similarly, if you're an audience member who feels hesitant to ask questions, think of this as the place to expand your comfort zone and try things you wouldn't usually try.

• Assume your teammates have something to teach you, and try to learn from them.
• Invite push-back
• Avoid making broadly negative or dismissive statements.
• Try not to talk over people.
• Hold yourself to a high standard of understanding: try to understand why things had to be this way and not any other way and why they have been done. Always ask why a few times in a row.
• Basic understanding questions, even at the level of clarifying notation, are highly valuable
• As an audience member, you have much more cognitive bandwidth than the speaker. It's therefore helpful to take the extra time to formulate your question to be easy to understand and engage with.
• You have a right to understand. If something is said in a seminar, you have a right to understand it. Science progresses not by ineffable truths that cannot be explained but by clearly articulated common knowledge.
• Asking questions shows respect. When I ask a question, it shows that I am interested enough in the topic to engage with it, and that I trust the speaker to give an informative answer.
• Honest answers show courage
• Don't be afraid to ask tough questions. Our meeting is a safe space, and asking tough questions now helps the speaker think through them before they present externally.

"For a completed project, my aspirational goal as a speaker is usually to convince the audience that my work addresses a key issue on one of the most important problems in the field (or ideally the world) and that they should be working on this question if they have the right skillset."

Meetings end at the scheduled time. You are free to leave when the time is up.

Think of the Group Day as our brain trust

A central component of Pixar has been the Braintrust.

The Braintrust is composed of a group of experienced directors, writers, and storytellers at Pixar who gather periodically to review film projects during their development. Unlike traditional top-down critique sessions, the Braintrust operates on a peer-to-peer basis, ensuring an environment where creative ideas are openly discussed and debated without the influence of hierarchical pressure.

Key features of the Braintrust include:

1. Candor: Members of the Braintrust are encouraged to give blunt, honest feedback. The focus is always on the film itself, not on the feelings of the people presenting their work. It is better when issues are identified at this stage than by the audience.
2. Trust: The success of the Braintrust depends on the mutual respect and trust among its members. This trust ensures that critiques are seen as efforts to help and not as personal attacks.
3. No Authority to Impose Changes: The Braintrust does not have the power to directly change aspects of the projects. Instead, it offers insights and suggestions, leaving the final decision to the film's director and creative team. This empowers the creators to maintain their vision while considering expert feedback.
4. Focus on Problem Solving: Discussions in the Braintrust are aimed at identifying problems and suggesting solutions, rather than mandating directives. This collaborative problem-solving approach fosters a creative and supportive environment.

We are also in a creative business. We need to nurture fragile ideas but also must be our harshest critics to achieve the highest quality. Let's think of our Group Day discussions similar to films in Pixar's braintrust:

• We strive to help by providing blunt and honest feedback early
• What part of the feedback is implemented is up to the owner of the project (in alignment with Kevin)
• Our meetings are not a place where we blame or ridicule others. We openly admit mistakes and, as a team, strive to find the best outcome for the team