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 "name": "Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies",
 "author": [
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Ava Elizabeth Scott"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Lev Tankelevitch"
  },
  {
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   "name": "Sean Rintel",
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 ],
 "datePublished": "2024-05",
 "doi": "10.1145/3613904.3642670",
 "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html",
 "citation": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670",
 "bibtex": "@inproceedings{scott2024mental,\nauthor = {Scott, Ava Elizabeth and Tankelevitch, Lev and Rintel, Sean},\ntitle = {Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies},\nbooktitle = {CHI 2024},\nyear = {2024},\nmonth = {May},\npublisher = {ACM},\nurl = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670},\ndoi = {10.1145/3613904.3642670},\n}",
 "abstract": "Ineffective meetings due to unclear goals are major obstacles to productivity, yet support for intentionality is surprisingly scant in ourmeeting and allied workflow technologies. To design for intentionality, we need to understand workers’ attitudes and practices aroundgoals. We interviewed 21 employees of a global technology company and identified contrasting mental models of meeting goals:meetings as a means to an end, and meetings as an end in themselves. We explore how these mental models impact how meetinggoals arise, goal prioritization, obstacles to considering goals, and how lack of alignment around goals may create tension betweenorganizers and attendees. We highlight the challenges in balancing preparation, constraining scope, and clear outcomes, with theneed for intentional adaptability and discovery in meetings. Our findings have implications for designing systems which increaseeffectiveness in meetings by catalyzing intentionality and reducing tension in the organisation of meetings.KEYWORDS: videoconferencing, meeting, goal, agenda, intentionality, calendar, teams, workflows",
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 "takeaway": "People hold two mental models of meeting goals (meetings as means to an end, or as ends in themselves for connection and discovery). Misaligned goals can create tension between organizers and attendees, so meeting intentionality (knowing why you meet) needs tools that surface goals across the meeting lifecycle, from scheduling.",
 "researchOverview": {
  "name": "Better Meetings",
  "page": "https://seanrintel.com/better-meetings.html",
  "json": "https://seanrintel.com/overviews/better-meetings.json",
  "markdown": "https://seanrintel.com/overviews/better-meetings.md",
  "thesis": "A meeting's purpose should shape everything about it, yet many meetings run without one stated. Good help with meeting goals moves people from wherever they start, with depth that fits the meeting.",
  "claimsThisPaperFeeds": [
   {
    "claim": "Meetings often run on purposes nobody has stated",
    "role": "core evidence",
    "url": "https://seanrintel.com/better-meetings.html#m1"
   },
   {
    "claim": "Help with meeting goals should start where people are, and go deeper only for meetings that need it",
    "role": "supporting evidence",
    "url": "https://seanrintel.com/better-meetings.html#m3"
   },
   {
    "claim": "A meeting's purpose is everyone's job, but asking what it is can feel risky, especially for junior staff",
    "role": "core evidence",
    "url": "https://seanrintel.com/better-meetings.html#m4"
   },
   {
    "claim": "A meeting's purpose is easily lost between meetings unless something carries it forward",
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    "study": "Coaching study: an AI coach before real meetings",
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    "study": "Probe study: goal check-ins during meetings",
    "title": "Are We On Track? AI-Assisted Active and Passive Goal Reflection During Meetings",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/are-we-on-track-ai-assisted-active-and-passive-goal-reflection-during-meetings.html",
    "researchBrief": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/are-we-on-track-ai-assisted-active-and-passive-goal-reflection-during-meetings.json"
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    "study": "Recordings and design: looking back and ahead in meetings",
    "title": "Designing Interfaces that Support Temporal Work Across Meetings with Generative AI",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/designing-interfaces-that-support-temporal-work-across-meetings-with-generative-ai.html",
    "researchBrief": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/designing-interfaces-that-support-temporal-work-across-meetings-with-generative-ai.json"
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   {
    "study": "Field experiment: nudging attention to meeting goals",
    "title": "Nudging Attention to Workplace Meeting Goals: A Large-Scale, Preregistered Field Experiment",
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    "title": "Stund: Activity-Enriched Collaborative Workspaces Mediated by Artificial Intelligence",
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    "study": "Conversation analysis: designing for the meeting",
    "title": "(Re)Configuring Hybrid Meetings: Moving from User-Centered Design to Meeting-Centered Design",
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    "study": "Interviews and narration: what attention in video is for",
    "title": "Classification of Functional Attention in Video Meetings",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/classification-of-functional-attention-in-video-meetings.html",
    "researchBrief": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/classification-of-functional-attention-in-video-meetings.json"
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    "study": "Interviews: low engagement as a choice",
    "title": "Low Engagement As a Deliberate Practice of Remote Participants in Video Meetings",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/low-engagement-as-a-deliberate-practice-of-remote-participants-in-video-meetings.html",
    "researchBrief": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/low-engagement-as-a-deliberate-practice-of-remote-participants-in-video-meetings.json"
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    "study": "Research synthesis: collaboration and meetings",
    "title": "Collaboration and Meetings – Chapter 1 of the 2021 New Future of Work report",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/collaboration-and-meetings.html"
   },
   {
    "study": "Telemetry and diaries: multitasking in remote meetings",
    "title": "Large Scale Analysis of Multitasking Behavior During Remote Meetings",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/large-scale-analysis-of-multitasking-behavior-during-remote-meetings.html",
    "researchBrief": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/large-scale-analysis-of-multitasking-behavior-during-remote-meetings.json"
   },
   {
    "study": "Survey and dashboard study: feedback on inclusive meetings",
    "title": "MeetingCoach: An Intelligent Dashboard for Supporting Effective and Inclusive Meetings",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/meetingcoach-an-intelligent-dashboard-for-supporting-effective-inclusive-meetings.html",
    "researchBrief": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/meetingcoach-an-intelligent-dashboard-for-supporting-effective-inclusive-meetings.json"
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    "study": "Survey and diaries: chat alongside video meetings",
    "title": "The Promise and Peril of Parallel Chat in Video Meetings for Work",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-promise-and-peril-of-parallel-chat-in-video-meetings-for-work.html",
    "researchBrief": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-promise-and-peril-of-parallel-chat-in-video-meetings-for-work.json"
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    "study": "Diary study: video meetings in the pandemic",
    "title": "Meeting (the) Pandemic: Videoconferencing  Fatigue and Evolving Tensions of Sociality  in Enterprise Video Meetings During  COVID-19",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/meeting-the-pandemic-videoconferencing-fatigue-and-evolving-tensions-of-sociality-in-enterprise-video-meetings-during-covid-19.html",
    "researchBrief": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/meeting-the-pandemic-videoconferencing-fatigue-and-evolving-tensions-of-sociality-in-enterprise-video-meetings-during-covid-19.json"
   },
   {
    "study": "Survey and telemetry: chat and voice in meetings",
    "title": "Virtual voices: Exploring individual differences in chat and verbal participation in virtual meetings",
    "page": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/virtual-voices-exploring-individual-differences-in-chat-and-verbal-participation-in-virtual-meetings.html",
    "researchBrief": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/virtual-voices-exploring-individual-differences-in-chat-and-verbal-participation-in-virtual-meetings.json"
   }
  ]
 },
 "whyItMatters": {
  "stateOfTheArt": {
   "summary": "Meeting science has long flagged unclear goals as a cause of ineffective meetings, yet calendar and videoconferencing tools do not ask anyone why a meeting is needed.",
   "quote": "Unfortunately, the technologies that enable in-person, remote, or hybrid meetings often do not require users to reason about or explain why a meeting is needed.",
   "location": "§1, pp. 1–2"
  },
  "contribution": {
   "summary": "Rather than classifying meeting topics, as earlier taxonomies did, the authors examine people's intentions and assumptions before a meeting, how goals arise or are obstructed, and what follows. The authors draw design implications for calendar and meeting technologies, including generative AI.",
   "quote": "Fundamental findings about social-technical issues around meeting goals: mental models, how goals arise, obstacles to goal behavior, and functional and affective implications.",
   "location": "§2.4, p. 3"
  },
  "whoCares": {
   "summary": "Designers of calendar, planning and meeting systems, and the organizers and attendees of workplace meetings.",
   "quote": "Our findings have implications for designing systems which increase effectiveness in meetings by catalyzing intentionality and reducing tension in the organisation of meetings.",
   "location": "Abstract, p. 1"
  }
 },
 "researchQuestions": [
  "What mental models of meeting goals do workers hold?",
  "How do meeting goals arise, and what obstacles stand in the way of setting, communicating and understanding them?",
  "What functional, affective and interpersonal implications do these mental models, practices and obstacles have?",
  "How might calendar and meeting technologies be designed to support intentionality in meetings?"
 ],
 "concepts": [
  {
   "term": "Meetings as a means to an end",
   "definition": "A mental model in which a meeting's goals are specific and knowable:",
   "quote": "participants view meetings as achieving outcomes that are expressly in aid of broader work",
   "location": "§4.1, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "term": "Meetings as an end in themselves",
   "definition": "A mental model in which the act of meeting is itself the purpose, which can also mean simply blocking time:",
   "quote": "participants view meetings as time for connection or discussion",
   "location": "§4.1, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "term": "Meeting goals versus agendas",
   "definition": "Goals and agendas are related but distinct: an agenda is a plan for reaching a goal.",
   "quote": "If goals set the destination for a meeting, then agendas outline the route.",
   "location": "§2.1, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "Intentionality across the meeting lifecycle",
   "definition": "The purpose behind a meeting, which can be catalyzed or obstructed at different moments from setting it up to holding it.",
   "quote": "Intentionality can travel through the meeting lifecycle, from its conceptualization to its execution.",
   "location": "§4, pp. 4–5"
  }
 ],
 "method": {
  "design": "Exploratory, formative qualitative interview study, with an exploratory probe asking participants to consider a 'meeting goals' field in calendar invitations.",
  "setting": "A global technology company. Interviews held as recorded Microsoft Teams video meetings.",
  "sample": "A purposive sample of 21 employees across six work areas, selected for diversity of gender, age, location, work area, seniority, hybrid work status and managerial status.",
  "n": 21,
  "duration": "Semi-structured interviews lasting between 30 and 70 minutes, preceded by an onboarding survey.",
  "analysis": "Two authors open-coded six interviews. An initial hierarchical codebook was developed through iterative discussion, and the first author coded the remaining 15 interviews in MAXQDA Plus 2022."
 },
 "findings": [
  {
   "headline": "Two ways to see a meeting.",
   "summary": "Across interviews with employees of a global technology company, two contrasting mental models of meeting goals stood out. One sees meetings as a means to an end (reaching an outcome or making progress). The other sees meetings as an end in themselves (maintaining relationships, discussing topics or simply blocking time). One person can hold both.",
   "quote": "sometimes the only goal for me wasn't really so much to get something out of that kind of a meeting, other than making sure my team felt connected with each other",
   "location": "§4.1.2, pp. 6–7",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-1-2-pp-6-7",
   "cite": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670 (§4.1.2, pp. 6–7)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Topics are not goals.",
   "summary": "Many people treated a list of discussion topics, or a recurring meeting's standing agenda, as its goal. That says what will be discussed but not why, which hides the meeting's purpose.",
   "quote": "If it's a recurring meeting... they always have an agenda and, you know, the goal is just to get through the agenda.",
   "location": "§4.1.2, p. 7",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-1-2-p-7",
   "cite": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670 (§4.1.2, p. 7)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Time, people and tools get in the way.",
   "summary": "People named many obstacles to setting and sharing meeting goals. These included too little time, many attendees with different roles, personality and team norms, differing priorities, and hidden agendas. Tools also scatter a meeting's context across scheduling, chat and meeting apps.",
   "quote": "Hence, technological systems supposedly designed to support meetings and wider collaboration can actually lead to the fragmentation and obscuring of intentionality.",
   "location": "§4.2, p. 9",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-2-p-9",
   "cite": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670 (§4.2, p. 9)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Asking 'why?' feels risky.",
   "summary": "Invitees sometimes avoided asking an organizer what a meeting was for, for fear of seeming impolite, critical or ignorant. They asked more readily when they already knew the organizer.",
   "quote": "I don't want to offend them if I decline their meeting or if I'm a jerk about, hey, I'm not gonna come unless you tell me what the agenda is, alright?",
   "location": "§4.2, p. 9",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-2-p-9-2",
   "cite": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670 (§4.2, p. 9)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Goals cut both ways.",
   "summary": "Clear goals helped people decide whether to attend and how to prepare, while open, goal-light meetings allowed adaptability and discovery but risked going off track. Missing goals caused uncertainty, even paranoia, and a sense of wasted time. Stated goals could feel like pressure.",
   "quote": "Six participants (P3, P8, P10, P13, P18, P19) mentioned that they were less likely to attend a meeting without a clear goal.",
   "location": "§4.3, p. 10",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-3-p-10",
   "cite": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670 (§4.3, p. 10)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "A goals field appealed, with caveats.",
   "summary": "Asked to imagine a 'meeting goals' field in calendar invitations, participants thought it would help both organizers and attendees. Some worried it would feel pressurizing, be neglected or be hard to keep up to date.",
   "quote": "I feel like people would just write, you know, garbage in there because for that meeting where it's not important and then at some point it's just gonna be like a field people just ignore.",
   "location": "§5.1, p. 14",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s5-1-p-14",
   "cite": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670 (§5.1, p. 14)"
  }
 ],
 "questions": [
  {
   "question": "Why do so many work meetings lack a clear goal?",
   "answer": "Partly because meeting intentionality (knowing why you are meeting) is hard to establish beforehand. Planning takes time people lack, and specific goals are hard for large mixed groups. Tools split a meeting's context across apps, and asking organizers why can feel impolite, so unclear goals sometimes go unchallenged.",
   "source": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§4.2, p. 9",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-2-p-9"
    },
    {
     "location": "§4.2, p. 9",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-2-p-9-2"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Does every meeting need an explicit goal?",
   "answer": "Not necessarily. Some meetings exist to maintain relationships or give space for open discussion, and loose structure can allow adaptability and discovery. But goal-light meetings risk going off track, and treating discussion topics as the goal can hide why the meeting exists.",
   "source": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§4.1.2, pp. 6–7",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-1-2-pp-6-7"
    },
    {
     "location": "§4.1.2, p. 7",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-1-2-p-7"
    },
    {
     "location": "§4.3, p. 10",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-3-p-10"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "What happens when people are invited to a meeting without a clear purpose?",
   "answer": "Uncertainty and a sense of wasted time. People described being less likely to attend or unable to prepare properly, uncertainty and even paranoia about why they were invited, and feeling their time was wasted. Clear goals before a meeting helped people decide whether to attend and how to prepare.",
   "source": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§4.3, p. 10",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-3-p-10"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Why do recurring meetings so often feel like a waste of time?",
   "answer": "Their original purpose can fade. A series may run for a long time while any single instance is unlikely to change anything. Time is often blocked in advance before anyone knows what it is for. Getting through a standing agenda can replace asking why the meeting exists.",
   "source": "Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§4.1.2, pp. 6–7",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-1-2-pp-6-7"
    },
    {
     "location": "§4.1.2, p. 7",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.html#at-s4-1-2-p-7"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "cites": [
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/classification-of-functional-attention-in-video-meetings.html",
   "title": "Classification of Functional Attention in Video Meetings",
   "location": "p. 16"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/large-scale-analysis-of-multitasking-behavior-during-remote-meetings.html",
   "title": "Large Scale Analysis of Multitasking Behavior During Remote Meetings",
   "location": "p. 15"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/making-space-for-social-time-supporting-conversational-transitions-before-during-and-after-video-meetings.html",
   "title": "Making Space for Social Time: Supporting Conversational Transitions Before, During, and After Video Meetings",
   "location": "p. 16"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/meeting-the-pandemic-videoconferencing-fatigue-and-evolving-tensions-of-sociality-in-enterprise-video-meetings-during-covid-19.html",
   "title": "Meeting (the) Pandemic: Videoconferencing  Fatigue and Evolving Tensions of Sociality  in Enterprise Video Meetings During  COVID-19",
   "location": "p. 15"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/perspectives-creating-inclusive-and-equitable-hybrid-meeting-experiences.html",
   "title": "Perspectives: Creating Inclusive and Equitable Hybrid Meeting Experiences",
   "location": "p. 17"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/the-promise-and-peril-of-parallel-chat-in-video-meetings-for-work.html",
   "title": "The Promise and Peril of Parallel Chat in Video Meetings for Work",
   "location": "p. 17"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/what-was-hybrid-a-systematic-review-of-hybrid-collaboration-and-meetings-research.html",
   "title": "What was Hybrid? A Systematic Review of Hybrid Collaboration and Meetings Research",
   "location": "p. 16"
  },
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/meetingcoach-an-intelligent-dashboard-for-supporting-effective-inclusive-meetings.html",
   "title": "MeetingCoach: An Intelligent Dashboard for Supporting Effective and Inclusive Meetings",
   "location": "p. 17"
  }
 ],
 "quantitative": [],
 "implications": [
  {
   "summary": "A 'meeting goals' field at scheduling time could serve organizers, invitees and attendees at different points.",
   "quote": "a meeting goals field can help (a) organizers to decide on whether they need a meeting in the first place, (b) invitees to decide on whether they should attend, and (c) attendees to adequately prepare for the meeting as needed",
   "location": "§5.1, p. 13"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Supporting intentionality is about reflection, not forcing explicit goals onto every meeting.",
   "quote": "Supporting intentionality does not mean that every meeting should have an explicitly communicated set of goals.",
   "location": "§5, p. 12"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Generative AI could prompt people to reflect on meeting intentions in context, draft goals and agendas, suggest alternatives to meeting, let attendees ask about goals without offending organizers, and eventually generate goal-driven meeting interfaces."
  },
  {
   "summary": "Intentionality interventions carry risks, such as added demands on time and attention, over-analysis during meetings, and pressure or a sense of surveillance.",
   "quote": "By repeatedly surfacing intentionality, systems could be perceived as applying pressure on users, contributing to greater feelings of stress at work",
   "location": "§5.1, p. 15"
  }
 ],
 "limitations": [
  {
   "summary": "All participants came from one global technology firm.",
   "quote": "Our participant cohort consisted of employees from just one global technology firm, which has shaped their norms, practices, and available technologies.",
   "location": "§3.3, p. 4"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Seventy percent of participants were from the US, and meeting practices differ across cultures, so findings may not fully generalize."
  },
  {
   "summary": "Participants self-selected from people who had taken part in earlier meeting research and may be more thoughtful about meetings than most.",
   "quote": "participants self-selected into our study based on participation in prior meeting research",
   "location": "§3.3, p. 4"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Meeting organizers may be biased in evaluating their own meetings, and the study had no way to account for this."
  }
 ],
 "figures": [
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies/fig-2.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 2: Summary of findings: our findings centered around mental models of meeting goals; current practices and obstacles to considering meeting goals; and the functional, affective, and interpersonal implications of these mental models, practices, and obstacles on meeting intentionality.",
   "alt": "Diagram along an 'intentionality across time' arrow: two mental models (means to an end, and end in themselves), then how goals arise and six obstacles, then functional and affective/interpersonal implications.",
   "location": "Fig. 2, p. 6",
   "credit": "Figure 2 from Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670"
  },
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies/fig-1.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 1: Goals are not explicitly featured in Microsoft, Zoom, or Google calendar invitation interfaces (top row) or videoconferencing interfaces (bottom row).",
   "alt": "Screenshots of three vendors' meeting scheduling forms (top) and video call windows (bottom). None has a dedicated field for a meeting's goal.",
   "location": "Fig. 1, p. 1",
   "credit": "Figure 1 from Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. CHI 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642670"
  }
 ],
 "pageNumbersReferTo": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies.pdf",
 "verified": "2026-10-25",
 "studyFigure": {
  "about": "The opening figure on this paper's page, made for the site with AI assistance from this verified brief. It is not the paper's own figure. Evidence entries index this file's quantitative, findings and limitations arrays.",
  "study": {
   "kind": "single",
   "summary": "Qualitative interview study with 21 employees of a global technology company, drawn from six work areas. Interviews were semi-structured, held over Microsoft Teams and lasted 30 to 70 minutes.",
   "steps": [
    {
     "label": "21 employees",
     "detail": "A purposive sample of 21 employees from six work areas, chosen to vary in role, seniority, location and hybrid work."
    },
    {
     "label": "Video interviews",
     "detail": "Each employee completed an onboarding survey, then a semi-structured interview of 30 to 70 minutes about meeting goals."
    },
    {
     "label": "A goals field to imagine",
     "detail": "Interviewees were asked to imagine a field for meeting goals in calendar invitations."
    },
    {
     "label": "Coding",
     "detail": "Two authors open-coded six interviews to build a codebook, and the first author coded the other 15."
    }
   ]
  },
  "findings": {
   "legend": null,
   "stages": [
    {
     "title": "Two ways to see a meeting",
     "sub": "mental models of what meeting goals are",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Interviewees described two mental models of meeting goals.",
       "detail": "One sees a meeting as a means to an end, reaching an outcome. The other sees it as an end in itself, for connection or discussion. One person can hold both.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[0]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Many interviewees treated a list of topics as a meeting's goal.",
       "detail": "A recurring meeting's standing agenda says what will be discussed but not why, which hides the meeting's purpose.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[1]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "What gets in the way of goals",
     "sub": "obstacles to setting, sharing and asking about meeting goals",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Interviewees named many obstacles to setting and sharing meeting goals.",
       "detail": "The obstacles included too little time, many attendees with different roles, team norms, differing priorities and hidden agendas.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[2]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Meeting tools split a meeting's context across separate apps.",
       "detail": "Scheduling, chat and meeting apps each hold part of a meeting's context. The paper argues this can obscure why a meeting exists.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[2]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Invitees sometimes avoided asking organisers what a meeting was for.",
       "detail": "Invitees feared that asking would seem impolite, critical or ignorant. Invitees asked more readily when they already knew the organiser.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[3]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "Clear goals help, with costs",
     "sub": "effects of clear, open or missing goals, and views on a goals field",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Six of 21 interviewees said they were less likely to attend meetings without clear goals.",
       "detail": "Clear goals helped interviewees decide whether to attend and how to prepare. Missing goals brought uncertainty, even paranoia, and a sense of wasted time.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[4]",
        "method"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Interviewees said open meetings left room for discovery but could go off track.",
       "detail": "Interviewees also said that stated goals could feel like pressure.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[4]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Interviewees thought a goals field in calendar invitations could help organisers and attendees.",
       "detail": "Some interviewees worried the field would feel like pressure, be neglected or be hard to keep up to date.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[5]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
  },
  "keyTerm": "meeting intentionality",
  "takeaway": "People treat meetings as a means to an end, an end in themselves, or both, often leaving goals unstated. Tools can support meeting intentionality by surfacing goals from scheduling onward."
 }
}