Rohan Ranade

In my engineering team, we hold daily standups, and to keep things engaging, we wanted to randomize the order of speakers each day. However, we quickly realized that while randomizing keeps things fresh, it also catches people off guard if they don't know when they will be called upon. To solve this, I built an automation using Google Apps Script that:

• Randomizes the standup order while grouping people from the same workstream together.
• Sends a Slack message every weekday morning at 9 AM with the order.
• Pulls the attendee list from a Google Spreadsheet, allowing easy updates.

This post walks through the entire setup, including code snippets, Slack integration, and lessons learned.

From time to time, your direct report or colleague will take extended time away from work. It could be a parental leave or a sabbatical or an extended time off to take care of personal things. Whatever the reason, when they come back, they are going to be overwhelmed by the thousands of Slack and email notifications that they have missed while they were away.