Meeting Insights
Turn raw meeting transcripts into a structured set of decisions, action items, owners, due dates, open questions, and risks.
Table of Contents
Keywords
meeting, meetings, transcript, notes, minutes, action items, decisions, decision log, follow-up, recap, sales call, customer interview, retrospective, standup, planning, async
Clarify First
Before extracting insights, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume:
- [ ] Transcript with speaker labels —
Speaker: textformat drives owner attribution on action items - [ ] Meeting type — recap vs customer interview vs decision log changes which extractions matter (decisions/actions vs pains/quotes)
- [ ] Output target — recap email, append-only decision log, or interview synthesis sets the structure of the deliverable
Stop rule: ask only the 2-3 that most change the output. If the user says "just draft it," proceed and list your assumptions at the top of the artifact.
Quick Start
Process a Transcript in 5 Minutes
- Save your transcript text as
transcript.txt(one speaker turn per line, formatSpeaker: text) - Run:
python scripts/transcript_analyzer.py transcript.txt - Review the structured output: decisions, action items, owners, due dates, open questions
- Drop into
assets/recap_template.mdto send a follow-up
Core Workflows
Workflow 1: Post-Meeting Recap
Goal: Convert a 60-minute conversation into a 90-second readable summary that everyone can act on.
Steps:
- Export the transcript (Otter, Fireflies, Zoom, Google Meet, etc.)
- Run:
python scripts/transcript_analyzer.py transcript.txt - Verify owners and due dates — the analyzer is heuristic; humans correct
- Paste structured output into
assets/recap_template.md - Send within 24 hours of the meeting
Expected Output: Recap with decisions, action items (owner + due date), open questions, and risks.
Time Estimate: 5-10 minutes vs. 30+ for manual note review.
Workflow 2: Customer Interview Synthesis
Goal: Pull the signals out of a discovery call without losing the customer's actual words.
Steps:
- Run analyzer in JSON mode:
python scripts/transcript_analyzer.py transcript.txt --json - Filter for
painsandquotes— these are the discovery signals - Use
references/insight_extraction_patterns.mdto triangulate across multiple interviews - Tag findings by ICP segment for product / marketing handoff
Expected Output: Tagged customer pain list with verbatim quotes per insight.
Time Estimate: 15 minutes per interview after the call.
Workflow 3: Decision Log Maintenance
Goal: Build an organizational memory so the same decision is not re-litigated quarter after quarter.
Steps:
- After each meeting, run the analyzer to extract decisions
- Append to a running decision log keyed by date and topic
- When a future meeting raises an old topic, search the log first
- Re-open formally rather than silently overturning
Expected Output: Append-only decision log searchable by topic and date.
Time Estimate: 2-3 minutes per meeting.
Tools
transcript_analyzer.py
Reads a transcript text file and extracts:
- Decisions — sentences with decision markers ("we decided", "agreed", "going with")
- Action items — sentences with action markers ("will", "going to", "by next week"), with heuristic owner + due date
- Open questions — sentences ending in "?" or marked with "open question"
- Risks — sentences with risk markers ("risk", "concern", "blocker", "if X then Y")
- Quotes — distinctive verbatim sentences > 12 words (for customer interview workflows)
# Human-readable
python scripts/transcript_analyzer.py transcript.txt
# JSON for programmatic use
python scripts/transcript_analyzer.py transcript.txt --json
Transcript format expected:
Alice: We need to decide on the launch date this week.
Bob: I'll send the draft by Friday.
Alice: Are we blocked on legal review?
Bob: Yes, that's the risk — if legal slips, launch slips.
Reference Guides
references/insight_extraction_patterns.md— Heuristic triggers for decisions, actions, and risks; how to triangulate across interviews
Templates
assets/recap_template.md— Post-meeting recap email with placeholder sections
Best Practices
- Verify before sending. The analyzer is heuristic; an unverified recap that mis-attributes an action item destroys trust.
- Owner + date or it does not exist. An action item without an owner is a hope; without a date, it is a wish.
- Send within 24 hours. Memory of who said what fades fast; recap latency directly correlates with action-item completion rate.
- Quote verbatim. For customer interviews, the customer's words matter more than your summary of them.
- Decision log is append-only. Never silently overturn — re-open with a dated update.
Integration Points
- Pairs with
product-team/user-story/for converting interview pains into stories - Pairs with
project-management/for action-item tracking - Feeds into
marketing/voice-of-customer workflows