{"id":1002048,"date":"2024-01-26T07:35:58","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T15:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&#038;p=1002048"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T04:53:22","slug":"mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/publication\/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1010988 size-medium alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/meetinggoals-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"meeting goals\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/meetinggoals-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/meetinggoals-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/meetinggoals-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/meetinggoals-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/meetinggoals-360x360.jpg 360w, https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/meetinggoals.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Ineffective meetings due to unclear goals are major obstacles to productivity, yet support for intentionality is surprisingly scant in our <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">meeting and allied workflow technologies. To design for intentionality, we need to understand workers\u2019 attitudes and practices around <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">goals. We interviewed 21 employees of a global technology company and identified contrasting mental models of meeting goals: <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">meetings as a means to an end, and meetings as an end in themselves. We explore how these mental models impact how meeting <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">goals arise, goal prioritization, obstacles to considering goals, and how lack of alignment around goals may create tension between <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">organizers and attendees. We highlight the challenges in balancing preparation, constraining scope, and clear outcomes, with the <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">need for intentional adaptability and discovery in meetings. Our findings have implications for designing systems which increase <\/span><span dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">effectiveness in meetings by catalyzing intentionality and reducing tension in the organisation of meetings.<\/span> KEYWORDS: videoconferencing, meeting, goal, agenda, intentionality, calendar, teams, workflows<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p><strong>RELATED RESEARCH<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Formative studies<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list -->\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/publication\/mental-models-of-meeting-goals-supporting-intentionality-in-meeting-technologies\/\">Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technology<\/a><\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item --><\/ul>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\r\n<p>Prototype studies<\/p>\r\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list -->\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Before meetings: <a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/publication\/what-does-success-look-like-catalyzing-meeting-intentionality-with-ai-assisted-prospective-reflection\/\">What Does Success Look Like? Catalyzing Meeting Intentionality with AI-Assisted Prospective Reflection<\/a><\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Before and during meetings: <a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/publication\/the-coexplorer-technology-probe-a-generative-ai-powered-adaptive-interface-to-support-intentionality-in-planning-and-running-video-meetings\/\">The CoExplorer Technology Probe: A Generative AI-Powered Adaptive Interface to Support Intentionality in Planning and Running Video Meetings<\/a><\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>During meetings: <a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/publication\/are-we-on-track-ai-assisted-active-and-passive-goal-reflection-during-meetings\/\">Are We On Track? AI-Assisted Active and Passive Goal Reflection During Meetings &#8211; Microsoft Research<\/a><\/li>\r\n<!-- \/wp:list-item -->\r\n\r\n<!-- wp:list-item -->\r\n<li>Between meetings: <a href=\"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/publication\/designing-interfaces-that-support-temporal-work-across-meetings-with-generative-ai\/\">Designing Interfaces that Support Temporal Work Across Meetings with Generative AI<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul><!-- \/wp:list-item -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ineffective meetings due to unclear goals are major obstacles to productivity, yet support for intentionality is surprisingly scant in our meeting and allied workflow technologies. To design for intentionality, we need to understand workers\u2019 attitudes and practices around goals. We interviewed 21 employees of a global technology company and identified contrasting mental models of meeting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":null,"msr_publishername":"ACM","msr_publisher_other":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_edition":"","msr_editors":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_issue":"","msr_journal":"","msr_number":"","msr_organization":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_page_range_start":"","msr_page_range_end":"","msr_series":"","msr_volume":"","msr_copyright":"Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. Mental Models of Meeting Goals: Supporting Intentionality in Meeting Technologies. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI \u201924), May 11\u201316, 2024, Honolulu, HI, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 17 pages. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3613904.3642670","msr_conference_name":"CHI 2024","msr_doi":"","msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_mag_id":"","msr_pubmed_id":"","msr_other_authors":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_award":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_institution":"","msr_host":"","msr_version":"","msr_duration":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_s2_match_type":"","msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_published_date":"2024-5-1","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_notes":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_conference_url":"https:\/\/chi2024.acm.org\/","msr_journal_url":"","msr_s2_pdf_url":"","msr_year":0,"msr_citation_count":0,"msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_s2_match_confidence":0,"msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":true,"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_pub_ids":[],"msr_hide_image_in_river":null,"footnotes":""},"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13554,13559],"msr-publication-type":[193716],"msr-publisher":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-field-of-study":[248485],"msr-conference":[],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-1002048","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","hentry","msr-research-area-human-computer-interaction","msr-research-area-social-sciences","msr-locale-en_us","msr-field-of-study-human-computer-interaction"],"msr_publishername":"ACM","msr_edition":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2024-5-1","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"","msr_volume":"","msr_number":"","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":1,"msr_main_download":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"url","viewUrl":"false","id":"false","title":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/epdf\/10.1145\/3613904.3642670","label_id":"243132","label":0},{"type":"file","viewUrl":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/chi24-774-authorcameraready.pdf","id":"1017681","title":"chi24-774-authorcameraready","label_id":"243103","label":0},{"type":"url","viewUrl":"false","id":"false","title":"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2402.18526","label_id":"252679","label":0},{"type":"doi","viewUrl":"false","id":"false","title":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3613904.3642670","label_id":"243106","label":0}],"msr_related_uploader":"","msr_citation_count":0,"msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_pdf_url":null,"msr_attachments":[{"id":1017681,"url":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/chi24-774-authorcameraready.pdf"},{"id":1002051,"url":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/chi24a-sub4574-i67.pdf"}],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"text","value":"Ava Elizabeth Scott","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Lev Tankelevitch","user_id":43209,"rest_url":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Lev Tankelevitch"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Sean Rintel","user_id":33579,"rest_url":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Sean Rintel"}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[199561],"msr_event":[1019022],"msr_group":[1142579],"msr_project":[1053711,483294],"publication":[],"video":[],"msr-tool":[],"msr_publication_type":"inproceedings","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":1053711,"post_title":"Tools for Thought","post_name":"tools-for-thought","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2024-07-03 05:21:39","post_modified":"2026-04-26 18:27:28","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/tools-for-thought\/","post_excerpt":"Better thinking through AIA People-Centric AI Project \"What would you rather have: a tool that thinks for you, or a tool that makes you think?\" Senior Researcher Advait Sarkar presented at TEDAI (opens in new tab) in Vienna on September 26th 2025. \u00a9 TEDAI Vienna \/ Robert Leslie Many AI tools focus on solving specific tasks like content generation or process automation. Though useful and powerful, these systems may affect how we think, learn, build&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/1053711"}]}},{"ID":483294,"post_title":"Intentional Meetings","post_name":"intentional-meetings","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2020-02-13 04:03:50","post_modified":"2026-03-24 16:30:04","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/intentional-meetings\/","post_excerpt":"Exploring how to make remote and hybrid telepresence meetings engaging, effective, adaptive, and inclusive.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/483294"}]}}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1002048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-research-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1002048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1144070,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-item\/1002048\/revisions\/1144070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-highlight","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-research-highlight?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publication-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publication-type?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-publisher","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-publisher?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-focus-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-focus-area?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-field-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-field-of-study?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-conference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-conference?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-journal","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-journal?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=1002048"},{"taxonomy":"msr-pillar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-pillar?post=1002048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}