Workflow
Meeting Summaries
Turn transcripts into clear updates with action items.
Overview
Meetings generate valuable information, but documenting decisions and action items is time-consuming. Claude Code turns transcripts into structured summaries, extracting decisions, owners, and follow-ups. Share summaries for confirmation before sending widely.
Use this workflow after team meetings, client calls, brainstorming sessions, retrospectives, or any discussion where decisions and next steps matter.
Step-by-step process
Upload transcript or meeting notes
Provide Claude with the raw meeting content—audio transcripts from tools like Otter.ai, Fireflies, or manual notes. The more complete the source material, the better the summary.
Ask for key decisions and action items
Direct Claude to extract the most important outcomes. Focus on decisions made, commitments given, and clarity on next steps and ownership.
Generate a summary for stakeholders
Create a formatted summary appropriate for your audience—detailed for participants, high-level for executives, or structured for project tracking.
Send follow-ups and tasks
Use the summary to create task tickets, calendar reminders, and follow-up emails. Ensure everyone knows what they committed to and when it's due.
Example prompts
"Summarize this 2-hour product roadmap meeting. Organize by: Features we committed to for Q1, Features deferred to Q2, Resource needs identified, Risks and dependencies flagged. For each committed feature, note the owner and target completion date."
"Analyze this customer interview transcript. Extract: Pain points mentioned (with quotes), Feature requests (ranked by emphasis), Workarounds they're currently using, Positive feedback about existing features. Include sentiment analysis."
"Create a retrospective summary from these notes. Categorize feedback into: What went well, What didn't go well, Action items to improve next sprint. For action items, suggest owners based on who raised each issue."
"Generate an executive summary from this board meeting. Focus on: Strategic decisions, Financial approvals, Key metrics reviewed, Questions or concerns from board members, Follow-up items for management."
Expected outputs
Summary
Structured overview of the meeting organized by topic, including context, discussion points, and outcomes
Decisions
Clear list of what was decided, who made the decision, rationale provided, and implications going forward
Action items
Specific tasks extracted with owners, due dates, dependencies, and priority levels clearly identified
Follow-up questions
Open items requiring additional input, research, or decisions before work can proceed
Best practices
Common pitfalls
Summarizing without understanding context
Solution: Provide Claude with meeting purpose and attendee roles. Context about what's been decided previously helps produce accurate summaries.
Missing implicit action items
Solution: Ask Claude: 'What action items are implied but not explicitly stated?' People often commit to things without using the words 'action item'.
Not validating summaries with participants
Solution: Send summaries to key participants for review before wider distribution. Misunderstandings are easier to fix early.
Pro tips
Create meeting templates by type
""Create a standard template for sprint planning summaries: Committed stories, Stretch goals, Blockers identified, Team capacity. I want consistent formatting across sprints.""
Link to previous decisions
""This is our third planning meeting for Project X. Reference decisions from the previous two meetings (attached) and note if anything has changed or been revisited.""
Generate status updates automatically
""Based on the action items from last week's meeting and this week's progress updates, generate a status report showing what's done, in-progress, and blocked.""