I work for Automattic and done fair bit of these collaborative meetings. We settled on something like this: - Write a memo asking for obvious requirements - Ge

I work for Automattic and done fair bit of these collaborative meetings. We settled on something like this: - Write a memo asking for obvious requirements - Get feedback - Ask more questions - Get feedback - Schedule a call, launch into chatting in detail - Write a memo - Get feedback - Prototype - Schedule a call... There is nothing really you can do live that you cannot do online. You don't get progress thanks to some fantastic insight while "brainstorming". You get progress by chipping away at the idea and having space to think. Having a weekly cycle of memos and Zoom Calls will handle this. Face-to-face really shines when you have to sync up on priorities and goals. It's a great way to get everybody feeling they communicated and are part of the same group. I don't mean this in a derogatory way - people need this feelings to work and overlooking that part of communication is causing the breakdowns. But after you get all your human rapport building out of the way, async is really effective. Communicating online is not a natural skill and should be deliberately practiced. I packaged all my learnings into a free mini-course: https://deliber.at/chat/ https://deliber.at/chat/