A trick worth stealing.

I try to be prepared for every meeting. I really do. But on many days I am jumping from one call into the next, and by the third or fourth one I am reading a name off the invite in the last ten seconds before it starts. I am sure I am not the only one with this problem.

So on the days that allow it, I do five minutes of preparation before a meeting. It is very simple, but it works for me, and maybe it works for you too.

• Names, roles, and how you know each other. The last email you exchanged, who introduced you, what they are doing now and not back when you first met. People notice when you remember.
• One look for what is new. A launch, a move, a post, the email you never answered. The thing that happened between then and now is almost always what the meeting is really about.
• One good question. Not ten general ones. One good, specific question that shows you actually read up on them beforehand. It helps far more than small talk.

It does not take more time. It takes five focused minutes, and knowing where to look.

And honestly, on a lot of days I do not even have those five minutes. So I taught Franz to do the work for me.

This is the most ambitious thing on the bench right now. Before a meeting I simply ask Franz to prepare me for it. It pulls the event from my calendar, reads up on the people and the company across the web, cross-checks my own emails with them in Franz Mail, and writes me a short prep document: who they are, what has changed since we were last in touch, and a good question to ask. I do not do any of the digging myself. I just ask, and the brief is ready.

Privacy matters most when an assistant is reading your calendar and your mail. With Franz you choose where the AI runs: on your own device, or on the private Franz AI cloud that I host here in the EU. Either way, your data stays yours, never sold and never used for advertising.

It is part of Pro Cloud, the paid plan. This kind of research costs real money to run, so I cannot give it away for free, but I can make sure subscribers are the first to have it.

It is not in your hands yet, but it ships to the beta in the next few days, and the stable build follows soon after. It already works, and it already makes me look far better prepared than I really am.

Franz has been downloaded more than a million times since 2016. I intend the next ten years to be even better than the last.

Also on the workbench

A few more things I am working on, and all of them are coming very soon.

• Gmail is close. Franz just passed CASA Tier 2, the last big security review Google asks for before Gmail can come in.
• Sign in with Google and Microsoft. Sign in to Franz with your Google or Microsoft account. No extra password to set up or remember.
• And a great many smaller improvements. A lot of small fixes and refinements. The kind you do not really notice, which is rather the point.

The Franz 6.4.0 beta ships in the next few days. If you want all of this before everyone else, you can turn on beta builds inside the app, under Franz → Settings → About → Join the beta program. It follows your account, so every device you sign in on comes along.

Help improve Franz

What would you want Franz to look up for you before your next meeting? Reply by return cable and tell me how you prepare today, or the things that always feel like a hassle. I read every answer, and it tells me what to build next.

— Stefan, founder of Franz