Show the real time.
Calculate the meeting’s duration across everyone invited, not only the block the organizer sees.
An update to the original concept
I decided to make this a real thing. So I did.
This page started as a product idea: interrupt a meeting invitation at the moment it becomes real, show the collective time it will consume and offer a few easier alternatives. Two weeks later, it was a working browser extension for Google Calendar and Outlook Web.
Before the invite goes out
Is this meeting necessary?
Could you get the same result with an email, message or shared document?
This meeting is 3 hours of work total
6 people × 30 minutes
Start an emailFor information, context or an update.
Start a messageFor one question or a quick back-and-forth.
Create a shared documentFor feedback, edits or working through an idea.
This really needs a meetingContinue without another form or approval step.
The original concept
The premise survived. Most of the extra stuff did not.
The first page explored a much broader product. Building and testing it clarified that the useful part was much smaller: one well-timed pause before an invitation is sent. The finished extension keeps the original three principles and gets out of the way.
Offer a useful alternative.
Open the email, messaging or document tool that already belongs to the user’s workplace ecosystem.
Do not block necessary meetings.
Create a moment of reflection, then let the organizer continue in one click when the meeting is justified.
What changed: The original concept asked organizers to explain what a meeting should accomplish. Testing showed that a second checkpoint felt like paperwork, so I removed it. Not Another Meeting is a necessity filter, not an agenda tool or approval process.
For transparency: I left the original concept page intact, including the assumptions, speculative features and ideas that did not survive the build.
View the original page →