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WorkBuddy Practical: 17 - Meeting Minutes: Turning Conversations into Deliverables

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WorkBuddy In Action

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Why Offices Constantly Shuffle Information

A typical office day consists of arranging meetings, finding references, taking notes, dispatching minutes, creating tasks, tracking progress, and writing reports. Information flows constantly between chats, video calls, emails, docs, and sheets, losing context with each transfer.

flowchart LR
    A[Pre-meeting Agenda] --> B[Create Meeting & Calendar Invites]
    B --> C[Meeting Recording & Transcript]
    C --> D[Decisions, Actions & Open Issues]
    D --> E[Task Ingestions & Notifications]
    D --> F[PRD / Slides / Technical Specs]
    E --> G[Daily/Weekly Reports & Progress Logs]
    F --> G
    G --> H[Project Memory & Next Agenda]

Main Case: Product Review Session

Scenario: The product team reviews the "Auto-generate Tasks from Meeting Minutes" feature. PMs used to replay recordings, compile notes, and copy tasks manually—taking half a day, with stakeholders often disagreeing on who committed to what.

This collaborative pipeline does not aim for unattended execution. It preserves manual verification points during meeting setup, recording checks, task staging, and PRD validations.

Step 1: Define Desired Decisions Before the Meeting

Meetings without agendas produce transcripts full of noise. Define the meeting type, questions to answer, and expected deliverables first.

Prepare a 45-minute agenda for "Auto-generate Tasks from Meeting Minutes" review.
Participants: PM, R&D, Design, QA, Operations.
Decisions required: MVP scope, task fields, launch metrics.
Read the draft specification and past decision records in project/meeting-to-task.
Output: Meeting objectives, pre-read references, timed agenda with owners, decisions to make now, and asynchronous issues to handle later.
Keep facts separate from suggestions. List missing inputs instead of fabricating details.

Step 2: Set Up Tencent Meeting and Sync Calendar

The Tencent Meeting Skill manages the full meeting lifecycle: scheduling, editing, canceling, querying participants, and fetching recordings/transcripts. The API requires storing tokens in environment variables and respecting corporate data privacy policies.

Tencent Meeting is not a general calendar. The correct sequence: schedule the meeting to get the ID and link first, then create calendar invites, add participants, and reserve rooms.

Fields to Verify Before Creation:

FieldExamplePurpose
TopicMeeting-to-Task Review - MVP ScopeEasy identification in lists
Start & EndJuly 8th, 14:00 - 14:45Avoid relative time confusion
TimezoneAsia/ShanghaiCrucial for cross-border setups
ParticipantsPM, R&D, Design, QA, OperationsDefines access and scope boundaries
RecurrenceOne-timeRecurring cancellations have larger impacts
Lobby SetupCorporate domain direct accessAdjust if external users attend
RecordingEnabled by host in meetingInvolves privacy notifications
Schedule a meeting using Tencent Meeting Skill.
Topic: Meeting-to-Task Review - MVP Scope
Time: 2026-07-08 14:00-14:45, Timezone Asia/Shanghai, One-time.
Return scheduled details for my review first, then confirm creation.
Once created, write the meeting ID, link, and timings into meeting-brief.md.
Generate a calendar invite draft containing the agenda and pre-read links.
Do not invite participants or reserve rooms until I confirm.

Cancellations and edits represent high-risk actions. Display target meetings and impacts before deleting, instead of executing on a simple "cancel the meeting" command.

Step 3: Fetch Recording, Transcript, and Summary

Once the meeting ends, check if the recording was completed and if transcripts are ready before attempting to download.

Query the finished meeting matching ID 123 456 789.
Return the topic, timing, and host. Once confirmed, query available recordings.
If authorized, fetch the transcript, timestamps, and smart summaries.
If unauthorized, stop and return the required access scope; do not bypass controls.
Define file types, sizes, destination paths, and retention limits before downloading.

This requires connecting the Tencent Meeting connector in the interface manager.

The Skill translates the 9-digit meeting number into an internal meeting_id to query transcripts. The Agent retains meeting IDs, recording IDs, query times, and permission states for troubleshooting.

Recording & Transcript Rules:

  • Notify participants about recording setups in advance.
  • Do not share recording links with unauthorized individuals.
  • Do not use unofficial audio recordings as a fallback if fetching fails.
  • Transcriptions are machine-generated; verify names, metrics, and negative statements.
  • Follow corporate data retention guidelines and compliance policies.

Step 4: Compile Actionable Minutes from Transcripts

Five Data Tiers in Minutes:

CategoryExampleProcess Rule
Background FactsWriting minutes takes 40 minutes on averageCite sources or transcript timestamps
Confirmed DecisionsMVP only supports draft task creationsLog owner and date
Action ItemsPM compiles the field mapping tableAssign owner, deadline, and deliverables
Open IssuesSupporting cross-project task duplicationAgenda for next meeting; do not present as final
SuggestionsR&D suggests implementing an async queueLabel as suggestion, not commitment
Compile meeting minutes. Do not rely solely on automated summaries; verify key metrics, owners, and negative sentences in the transcript.
Output:
1. General meeting metadata;
2. Three-sentence digest;
3. Topic summaries;
4. Decision matrix: decision, rationale, owner, timestamp;
5. Action items: task, owner, deadline, deliverables, dependencies;
6. Open issues and next review timing;
7. Unclear names, metrics, or terms.
Mark missing owners as "Unassigned" and missing dates as "TBD"; do not guess.

Step 5: Stage Action Items Before Database Ingestion

Why Two-Step Verification is Necessary: Meeting discussions are not database entries. Exporting drafts directly to production systems creates noise and tracking issues.

Read the action items in minutes-approved.md and generate a task staging preview.
Display for each: title, details, owner, deadline, priority, deliverables, source meeting.
Do not create tasks with missing owners or dates; move them to "Staging Inbox".
Group by owners for my review. Write to the database only after my confirmation.
Return counts of success, failure, skipped, and duplicates; do not send notifications.

For demo sessions, owners are marked as pending.

The stable flow: Draft Minutes -> Review -> Staging Preview -> Populate Missing Fields -> Database Ingestion -> Return Task URLs. Use "Meeting ID + Action ID" as an idempotent key to prevent duplicates.

Step 6: Post-meeting Bulletins

Generate notification drafts for review before sending:

Generate two post-meeting notification drafts based on minutes-approved.md:
A. For all participants: decisions, action items, open issues, and minutes URL.
B. For leadership: three-sentence summary, critical bottlenecks, and support decisions.
Do not include download URLs for raw recordings, internal debates, or unassigned roles.
Save as draft; do not send.

Routine 1: Excel Consolidation and Reconciliation

Focus on cleaning data pipelines and highlighting errors:

Consolidate weekly sales sheets from 6 regions under input/sales.
Check column names, data types, dates, currencies, and primary keys first; list discrepancies and halt if mismatched.
Deduplicate by order ID, keeping original track logs.
Output total lines, missing values, anomalies, and duplicates before consolidating.
Generate clean-sales.xlsx, exception-list.xlsx, and reconciliation.md.
Match totals against original sheets; do not compile conclusions if mismatch is not zero.

Verification: Row counts must balance, formulas must recalculate, anomalies must be logged, and charts must match summaries.

Routine 2: Contract and Document Comparisons

Compare policy-v3.docx and policy-v4.docx.
Output additions, deletions, updates, and style-only changes with chapter locations.
Highlight financial numbers, dates, ownership roles, approvals, exceptions, and negatives.
Output an impact summary and unresolved issues; do not compile legal advice or edit originals.

Routine 3: Minutes to Presentation

Compile an 8-slide PowerPoint from the meeting minutes.
Audience: Leadership. Goal: Confirm MVP scope and resource allocation.
Slides: Summary, Background, Customer pain points, MVP scope, Timelines, Risks, Resource requests, Next steps.
One takeaway per slide. Metrics must match the spreadsheet and decisions must map to minutes. Return slide outlines first.

The Core Office Skill Stack

LayerCapabilitiesDefault Safety Measures
MeetingsTencent Meeting Skill, Calendar integrationPreview before scheduling, confirm cancellations
ContentAudio extraction, ASR transcription, templatesKeep timestamps and raw references
CollaborationTask trackers, email clients, docs integrationsStage previews, draft message templates
ProductPRD structures, custom PM SkillsTrack unresolved specs, verify requirements
FilesDOCX, PDF, OCR, sorting algorithmsPrioritize copying; do not overwrite or delete
Spreadsheetsopenpyxl, formulas, pivots, auditingReconcile totals before drawing conclusions
ReportingPPT, data charts, styling templatesReview slide outlines and mappings first
AutomationCron reports, alerts, catalogsRun test batches, halt on errors

Install Skills progressively. Master one stable routine (e.g. meeting minutes to tasks) before connecting PRDs, weekly reports, and presentation pipelines.

References

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