Getting started with In Parallel
When you first sign in, your Personal Dashboard shows a short Getting started checklist. It walks you through everything In Parallel needs to start keeping your team aligned — in three steps. This article explains each step and links to the detailed guide behind it.
You can work through the steps in order or jump to whichever matters most. Each step has a Mark complete toggle on the right — In Parallel also completes some steps automatically as you go (for example, once you finish setting up your first Workspace). When all three are done, the checklist disappears and you're fully set up.
Step 1 — Getting started
The first step has two things you can do right away: book your intro session and connect your tools.
Book a meeting with the In Parallel team
Click Book to schedule a 30-minute intro with the In Parallel team. They'll help you set up your first Workspace and answer any questions. This is optional — you can complete the rest of the checklist on your own — but most teams find the intro gets them to value faster.
Connect your tools
This is the most important step. Connecting your tools is what lets In Parallel stay in the loop on what your team is shipping. From the Connect your tools card you can connect three things directly:
Slack — so In Parallel can send you post-meeting reports, task updates, and Digest summaries.
Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook — so the Transcriber can join the meetings on your calendar. Connect whichever matches your work email. You only connect one calendar.
Click Connect next to each tool and follow the prompt to authorize access. Once a tool is connected, its button changes to Connected.
Start with your calendar. The calendar is In Parallel's primary execution anchor — without it, there's no meeting context for your Living Execution Plan to build on. Connect it before anything else.
📖 Full details: Connect your calendar and notification tools
Step 2 — Set up your first Workspace
A Workspace gives In Parallel context about a program, product, or team so it can keep you ahead of what matters. Each Workspace gets its own Living Execution Plan.
If you connected your calendar in Step 1, In Parallel may suggest a Workspace based on a recurring meeting it found — accept the suggestion to get a head start. Otherwise, click Create workspace manually to build one from scratch.
Setting up the Workspace walks you through three quick parts:
Details — name your Workspace and add a short description of what it covers.
Goals — add a goal or two (or upload a document and let In Parallel suggest them) so the plan has something to track from day one.
Members — add the teammates who should have access.
This step completes automatically once all three parts are saved.
📖 Full details: Workspaces
Step 3 — Have your first recorded meeting
This is where In Parallel comes to life. It listens in on your connected meetings to capture decisions, action items, and stakeholder context — so there are no more manual notes.
Click Go to meetings to open your Meetings view. From there, connect an upcoming meeting to your Workspace and switch on Recorder joining so the Transcriber joins automatically. After the meeting, In Parallel posts a summary and updates your Living Execution Plan on its own.
📖 Full details: Connect a recurring meeting to your Workspace
What happens when you're done
As you finish each step it shows as Completed. Once all three are done, the Getting started checklist disappears and your Personal Dashboard shows your live priorities, tasks, and Workspaces instead.
From here:
Your Living Execution Plan stays current automatically after every connected meeting.
Your Personal Dashboard aggregates tasks and goals across every Workspace you're part of.
Your Digest delivers a regular summary of what changed.
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