Meeting Synthesizer Skill

Transform raw meeting notes and transcripts into actionable intelligence. This skill extracts critical information from unstructured meeting data and organizes it into structured formats that drive follow-through and accountability.

Overview

The Meeting Synthesizer processes meeting notes or transcripts to produce:

• Action Items: Clear tasks with owners, due dates, and context
• Decisions Made: Key decisions with justification and implications
• Discussion Points: Important topics, debates, and consensus areas
• Follow-up Tasks: Prioritized task list with next steps
• Key Insights: Patterns, concerns, and emerging themes

When to Use This Skill

• After team meetings, standups, or planning sessions
• When converting transcript/notes into structured action items
• When you need to quickly extract decisions and assign accountability
• When synthesizing notes for stakeholders who missed the meeting
• When creating task lists from meeting discussions

How to Use This Skill

Basic Workflow

1. Provide the Meeting Content

   • Share meeting notes (typed or pasted)
   • Share a transcript (from Zoom, Teams, or other platform)
   • Share a voice-to-text transcription

2. Request Processing

   • Ask the skill to synthesize the meeting
   • Optionally specify which elements to focus on
   • Optionally provide format preferences (markdown, JSON, etc.)

3. Review & Act

   • Review the extracted information
   • Assign owners and deadlines
   • Create tickets or calendar items
   • Share results with team

Example Prompts

Comprehensive Synthesis

Synthesize this meeting:
[paste meeting notes/transcript]

Extract all action items, decisions, and key points.
Organize by priority and due date.

Focused on Action Items

Extract action items from this meeting:
[paste meeting notes]

For each action item, provide:
- Task description
- Owner/responsible person
- Due date (if mentioned)
- Context/why it matters
- Dependencies

Decision Extraction

What decisions were made in this meeting?
[paste meeting notes]

For each decision, provide:
- What was decided
- Why (reasoning/justification)
- Who made the decision
- Who is affected
- Any dissent or concerns

Priority Ordering

Synthesize this meeting with priority ordering:
[paste meeting notes]

Order action items by urgency and impact.
Identify any blocking items or critical path items.
Flag any decisions that need follow-up or clarification.

Processing Instructions

1. Parse Meeting Content

Input Recognition:

• Detect format: structured notes, transcript, bullet points, freeform text
• Identify participants: who attended, who spoke, roles
• Extract timestamps: when discussed (if available)
• Recognize context: meeting type, agenda, goals

Normalization:

• Clean up formatting inconsistencies
• Expand abbreviations where possible
• Clarify ambiguous references
• Group related items

2. Extract Action Items

Identification:

• Look for explicit assignments: "Alice will...", "We need to..."
• Identify implicit tasks: decisions requiring implementation
• Find time-bound items: "by Friday", "next sprint", "ASAP"
• Recognize dependencies: "after X is done"

Structuring:

Action Item:
  Description: [Clear, specific task]
  Owner: [Person responsible]
  Due: [Date/timeline]
  Context: [Why it matters]
  Dependencies: [What must happen first]
  Priority: [High/Medium/Low]

3. Identify Decisions

Detection:

• Explicit decisions: "We decided to...", "We will..."
• Consensus moments: "Everyone agreed...", "Consensus is..."
• Choices made: "We chose X over Y"
• Direction changes: "We're shifting from X to Y"

Documentation:

Decision:
  What: [The decision]
  Why: [Reasoning/justification]
  Decided By: [Who decided]
  Affected: [Who is impacted]
  Dissent: [Any concerns/opposition]
  Implementation: [How will it work]

4. Capture Discussion Points

Extraction:

• Main topics discussed
• Debates or different viewpoints
• Open questions or uncertainties
• Agreed-upon principles or approaches

Organization:

Discussion Point:
  Topic: [What was discussed]
  Viewpoints: [Different perspectives]
  Consensus: [What was agreed]
  Open Issues: [Unresolved items]

5. Generate Follow-up Tasks

Identification:

• Clarification needed: "We should confirm with X"
• Information gathering: "Research options for Y"
• Scheduling: "Schedule sync with Z"
• Communication: "Update stakeholders on decision"

Prioritization:

• Critical: Blocks other work, high impact
• High: Important, needed soon
• Medium: Should be done, no immediate urgency
• Low: Nice to have, lower priority

Output Format

Option 1: Markdown (Default)

# Meeting Synthesis: [Meeting Title/Date]

## Participants

- Alice (Product Lead)
- Bob (Engineering)
- Carol (Design)

## Decisions Made

### Decision 1

- **What**: Adopt Vue 3 for new frontend
- **Why**: Better TypeScript support, smaller bundle size
- **Decided**: By consensus
- **Impact**: Requires training for team members using Vue 2

### Decision 2

- **What**: Delay launch by 2 weeks
- **Why**: Need more time for security review
- **Decided**: Product + Security alignment
- **Impact**: Affects Q4 roadmap planning

## Action Items

### High Priority

- [ ] Complete security audit (Bob, Due: Friday)
- [ ] Prepare Vue 3 migration plan (Carol, Due: Monday)

### Medium Priority

- [ ] Schedule team Vue 3 training (Alice, Due: Next week)

### Low Priority

- [ ] Document decision rationale (Bob, Due: End of sprint)

## Key Discussion Points

- Concerns about timeline slippage
- Team enthusiasm for Vue 3 adoption
- Need for better documentation

## Follow-up Required

- Confirm security audit scope with CTO
- Get client approval for 2-week delay
- Check team training capacity

Option 2: JSON Structure

{
  "meeting": {
    "title": "Q4 Planning",
    "date": "2024-11-08",
    "participants": ["Alice", "Bob", "Carol"]
  },
  "decisions": [
    {
      "id": "D1",
      "description": "Adopt Vue 3",
      "rationale": "Better TS support",
      "decider": "Consensus",
      "impact": "Requires team training"
    }
  ],
  "actionItems": [
    {
      "id": "A1",
      "task": "Complete security audit",
      "owner": "Bob",
      "dueDate": "2024-11-10",
      "priority": "HIGH",
      "context": "Required before launch"
    }
  ],
  "followUp": ["Confirm security audit scope", "Get client approval"]
}

Examples

Example 1: Product Planning Meeting

Input Meeting Notes:

Meeting: Product Planning - Q1 2025
Attendees: Sarah (PM), Mike (Lead Dev), Lisa (Designer)

Topics:
1. User feedback analysis - lots of requests for dark mode
2. Performance issues reported in production
3. Q1 roadmap planning

Decisions:
- Will implement dark mode as primary feature
- Will address performance issues first (performance is blocking)
- Delaying mobile app until Q2

Action items:
Sarah will brief the team on user feedback by tomorrow
Mike will create performance improvement plan by Friday
Lisa will start dark mode design exploration next week
Need to schedule meeting with exec team for roadmap approval

Issues:
- Performance work might delay features
- Team capacity might be tight with both performance + dark mode
- Mobile app delay will disappoint some users

Output:

# Q1 2025 Product Planning Synthesis

## Decisions

1. **Implement dark mode as primary Q1 feature**
   - Why: High user demand from feedback analysis
   - Impact: Becomes focus of design/feature work

2. **Prioritize performance issues before new features**
   - Why: Blocking production users
   - Impact: Requires dedicated engineering time first

3. **Delay mobile app to Q2**
   - Why: Capacity and roadmap constraints
   - Impact: Will disappoint some users, needs communication

## Action Items

### Critical Path

- [ ] Performance improvement plan (Mike, Due: Friday)
  - Context: Blocking roadmap
  - Unblocks: Dark mode feature work

### High Priority

- [ ] Team briefing on user feedback (Sarah, Due: Tomorrow)
- [ ] Dark mode design exploration (Lisa, Due: Next week)

### Follow-up Required

- [ ] Executive team meeting on Q1 roadmap
- [ ] Communication plan for mobile app delay
- [ ] Capacity planning for parallel work streams

## Key Concerns

- Tight team capacity with performance + dark mode
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