For Operations Managers ·
What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have Otter.ai running in your operations meetings — capturing everything said, generating summaries, and producing action item lists — so you can lead the meeting instead of taking notes, and still have a complete record with clear assignments afterward.
What you'll need
Go to otter.ai. Click Sign Up and create an account with your work or personal email.
What you should see: The Otter.ai home screen with a large record button and a list of past recordings (empty for now).
For in-person ops reviews, floor meetings, or vendor visits, download the Otter.ai app on your smartphone:
For virtual meetings, connect Otter as an automatic notetaker:
What you should see: A "Notetaker" option that lets you add Otter to scheduled meetings automatically.
Alternatively: During any Zoom meeting, share your screen and run Otter.ai recording on your laptop — it captures the audio from the meeting.
For in-person: Open the Otter.ai app, tap the large record button. Otter starts transcribing immediately. Place your phone in the center of the table or near the primary speaker.
For Zoom: Start the meeting. If auto-join is enabled, Otter joins as a bot. Otherwise, open Otter in a browser tab and click Record.
Let the meeting run normally.
After ending the recording, Otter processes the audio (takes 1–3 minutes). Then review:
What you should see: A formatted transcript with sections labeled by time and a summary panel on the right.
Click on Action Items in the Otter summary. Review the list — confirm the owners and dates are correct based on what was actually said. Copy and paste into your follow-up email or Slack message.
For formal ops review meetings, export the full summary as a PDF (Share → Export → PDF) and attach to your meeting notes.