How do I catch up on a meeting I missed?
Read the outcome, then search the transcript. A one-hour recording takes an hour; a structured read takes three minutes and tells you what was decided, who committed to what, and which questions stayed open. Use the searchable transcript only for the exchanges you actually need to hear.
Why recordings do not solve this
A recording link is a promise to spend an hour later, which is why the click-through rate on internal meeting recordings is close to zero. Even at double speed you are scanning for four minutes of content with no index. The artefact that actually works is written, opens with the outcome, and is specific enough that you can act without watching anything — which is a different product from a video with a transcript stapled to it.
What a good catch-up artefact contains
Four things, in this order. What happened, written for someone with no context. What was decided, with the trade-off behind each decision. Who committed to what, in their words, with a deadline and a timestamp. What is still open — the questions that were asked and never answered. Donna’s reports lead with exactly this shape, because the first reader is usually the person who was not in the room.
Then search, do not scrub
For the two exchanges you do need first-hand, a speaker-attributed transcript with search beats a video scrubber every time: find your name or the topic, read the surrounding lines, and jump to that timestamp in the recording if the tone matters. Across many meetings, Ask Donna answers questions over the whole archive with quotes and citations — so “what did we decide about the pricing change?” is a query, not an afternoon.
Related questions
Can I get the catch-up without access to the recording?
Yes. A read can be shared as a link that needs no sign-in, or exported as PDF or Markdown, entirely separately from the recording — useful when the outcome should travel further than the raw footage.
How soon after the meeting is it ready?
Typically within minutes of the call ending: transcription starts on the recorded audio as soon as she leaves, and the two analysis passes follow immediately.
What if I want a different angle on the same meeting?
Re-read it through another lens on demand. The same transcript analysed as a delivery ceremony, a design review or a pitch produces genuinely different sections, and it costs one report rather than another meeting.
Put Donna in your next meeting
Access is open — sign in with your Google account and she’s in your dashboard in minutes. Rolling out to a whole team, or want a hand with the server setup? We’re glad to help.