Free Chrome extension · Google Calendar
Meeting X-Ray for Google Calendar
A meeting often goes wrong at the moment it appears in the calendar: no purpose, no agenda, twelve invitations sent out of habit. The extension looks at your meeting while you create it and tells you what is missing, before you send the invitations.
What it checks
- Purpose. The title or description says what should come out of the meeting, not only what it is about
- Agenda. The description has discussion points, it is not empty and not a single sentence
- Length. Set against the meeting type and the number of people
- Attendees. How many are invited and whether the group fits a decision or an ideas session
Each check gets a traffic light and a sentence about what you can change. The thresholds are rules of thumb, not laws, and you can ignore them when you have a reason.
What it suggests
Besides the checks, the extension suggests a format that fits your meeting: the silent meeting for information, 1-2-4-All for ideas and decisions, Troika for a concrete problem. It shows the name and the idea in two lines and copies an agenda outline with the time split. The full steps, the variations and what to do when it goes wrong are in my workshops and in the material on the site.
1-2-4-All and Troika come from Liberating Structures (liberatingstructures.com).
What data it reads
Only the create or edit page of a Google Calendar event that is open in front of you: the title, the description, the time and the number of guests. Guest email addresses are read only to be counted. Everything is computed in the browser. The extension has no server, sends nothing anywhere, uses no analytics and does not store the content of your meetings. Details are in the extension privacy policy.
Installation
The extension is being published in the Chrome Web Store. The install link appears on this page at launch. It works in Google Chrome and Chrome-based browsers, on Google Calendar's web interface, in Romanian and English.
Frequently asked questions
Does it cost anything?
No. The extension is free, with no account and no email.
Does it send my meetings anywhere?
No. The analysis runs in your browser and the event content does not leave the page.
Does it work with Outlook or Teams?
For now only with Google Calendar, on the web interface.
Why does it say my meeting has no purpose when I know what I want?
The extension only sees what is written in the event. If the purpose is clear only in your head, the invitees cannot read it. One sentence in the description fixes that.
Who made it?
Bogdan Grigore, facilitator and applied improvisation trainer, based on how I design meetings in my own work.
Want to see how a meeting you already run is doing, rather than one you are creating? Read how I work on meetings.