template
Standup update template for designers
Design standups are hard because the work is often exploration, and exploration has no obvious finish line to report. The answer is to report decisions rather than files: what you ruled out, what you settled, what you handed over.
Below is the skeleton, three worked days, and the box that turns your own notes into it.
Figma frame names and half thoughts are fine.
5 free a month. No signup to try the first one.
scraps
Half sentences are fine.
Sat 31 Oct
Nothing to report.
Nothing planned yet.
Nothing blocking.
Paste anything on the left. Half sentences are fine.
5 of 5 free updates left in October. the Pass
Statusly rewrites what you actually did. It does not invent work, and it never will.
Three design days, written out
Exploring, handing off, and waiting. Report the decision, not the file count.
*Done* • 3 directions for the empty states. Killed the modal one, too heavy for a first run. • Settled on inline guidance and wrote why in the Figma comments. *Next* • Tighten the inline direction to a handoff-ready state. *Blocked* • Nothing blocking.
*Done* • Handed the 4 empty states to Ravi with spacing and copy notes. • Fixed the 2 contrast failures support flagged on the warning banner. *Next* • Sit with Ravi for 20 minutes on the responsive behaviour. *Blocked* • Nothing blocking.
*Done* • Read the 6 support tickets about the onboarding step and rewrote that screen's copy. • Prepped the brand page layout so it drops in as soon as assets land. *Next* • Assemble the brand page the moment the files arrive. *Blocked* • Waiting on final logo files from the agency, 4 days. Brand page cannot ship without them.
The skeleton
Decisions first, artefacts second.
- "Ruled out X because Y" is the most useful sentence a designer can post. It stops the idea coming back in three weeks.
- Name who you handed to. It tells engineering the work exists without a meeting.
- Screen counts are fine as a number. They are not the point on their own.
*Done* • <what you decided, and what you ruled out> • <what you handed over, and to whom> *Next* • <the next decision or the next handoff> *Blocked* • <who or what you are waiting on, and days>
A template still leaves you an empty box tomorrow.
This page helps once. What makes the morning stop hurting is that Statusly keeps yesterday, so what you said you would do next is already sitting in today’s Done, waiting for you to confirm it or correct it.
The blocker you never cleared is still flagged, because you never said it cleared. Correcting an update takes 30 seconds. Writing one from nothing is what you have been avoiding.
carry-over
You said you’d write the retry tests. Done?
Still blocked on Priya, 3 days.
The scraps box is empty, and optional.
How do I report work that is still ugly?
Report the stage and the decision. "3 rough directions, one killed" is progress and reads as confidence, not delay.
Do I list Figma links?
One link if there is one worth opening. More than one and nobody opens any of them.
My work does not finish daily. What goes in Done?
The decision you closed that day. There is almost always one, even on a day with no new frames.