I like using a Google Group for recording meeting notes

After leaving Stripe, I've experimented with a few other mediums for recording meeting notes. To name a few, I tried Google Doc, Slack, and paper notebooks. Even at Stripe, I did experiment with those mediums and didn't like them.

They often miss one or another aspects that I love. For example, Google Doc is not immutable, doesn't broadcast, and is barely searchable. Slack isn't permanent (e.g. the retention period is short) and its search result is littered with too many other things. Paper notebooks aren't permanent nor searchable.

Recording meeting notes in a Google Group solves the mentioned aspects.

However, the most important aspect is that it forces me to review notes, reflect, rewrite, summarise, and allows space for me to infuse my own impression e.g. whether a customer likes our product, whether it went well or badly.

This process helps me internalise the important information that I've learned from the meeting.

For the Google Group, I would make a group named something similar to notes@[yourdomain].com. Then, after the meeting, I'll write up the notes and summary and send to that email address. It's immutable, permanent, and searchable.

I don't have a specific format for the email. I often include:

1. Who was in the meeting?
2. My impression or takeaways (if there is one)
3. Action items
4. Notes in bullet points
   1. I love quotes, so I'll record direct quotes here as well.

That's my go-to way of recording meeting notes. What's yours?