For Project Managers ·
What you'll accomplish
You'll use Otter.ai to automatically transcribe, summarize, and extract action items from every meeting you run — with the added benefit of a live transcript that appears on screen while the meeting is in progress. Unlike tools that only deliver summaries after the call, Otter shows you real-time transcription as people talk, so you can catch missed names, check what someone just said, and see action items suggested live.
What you'll need
Go to otter.ai and click Try for free. Sign up with your Google account, Microsoft account, or work email.
Otter will ask you to confirm your primary use case — select Meetings or Work to get the most relevant onboarding flow.
What you should see: Your Otter dashboard, which shows a list of recent conversations and options to record a new meeting.
Troubleshooting: If you're in a regulated industry (healthcare, finance, legal), check whether your firm has an enterprise Otter agreement with data residency controls before signing up on a personal account.
In the Otter dashboard, click the Calendar icon on the left sidebar, then click Connect Calendar.
Connect your Google Calendar or Outlook calendar. Grant Otter read access to see your upcoming meetings.
Otter will display your upcoming calendar events. Toggle on OtterPilot — this is the setting that causes Otter's bot to automatically join scheduled meetings and record them. You can set it to join all meetings or only selected ones.
What you should see: Your calendar events appearing in the Otter dashboard, with OtterPilot toggles next to each upcoming meeting.
Troubleshooting: If OtterPilot doesn't join a meeting, check (a) the meeting URL is a supported platform (Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet), (b) the meeting was scheduled in your calendar after you connected it, and (c) OtterPilot is toggled on for that specific meeting.
If you primarily use Zoom, install the Otter.ai Zoom app from the Zoom App Marketplace for the best experience.
In Zoom App Marketplace, search for Otter.ai and click Add. Authorize the connection.
With the Zoom app installed, Otter's live transcript panel appears as a side panel in your Zoom window during calls — you can see the transcript building in real time as people speak, without needing a separate window.
What you should see: During your next Zoom call, a right-side panel labeled "Otter.ai Notes" showing the live transcript as it builds.
Troubleshooting: If the side panel doesn't appear, go to Zoom → Apps (in the bottom toolbar during a meeting) and click the Otter.ai app to open it manually.
With OtterPilot enabled and calendar connected, your next scheduled meeting will be recorded automatically. OtterPilot joins as "Otter.ai Notetaker" 1–2 minutes before the scheduled start time.
You don't need to do anything. Run your meeting as normal.
What you should see: "Otter.ai Notetaker" appearing as a participant in your meeting's participant list. In the meeting chat, Otter sends a message notifying participants that notes are being taken.
Troubleshooting: If you want to record an unscheduled meeting (e.g., an impromptu call), open the Otter app on your phone or browser, tap the record button, and point your phone toward your laptop speakers. This manual recording mode works for any audio.
If you have the Zoom or Teams Otter integration active, or if you have the Otter web app open in a separate window, you can read the transcript live as the meeting unfolds.
This is useful for:
You can click on any action item suggestion to confirm or dismiss it during the meeting, building your action item list in real time.
What you should see: A scrolling transcript with speaker labels, live action item highlights, and a running list of confirmed action items in the right panel.
Within 5 minutes of the meeting ending, Otter generates a summary. In your Otter dashboard, open the meeting and review:
Click Edit on any section to correct mistakes. Otter's transcription is strong for clear English speech but struggles with heavy accents, technical acronyms, and project-specific terminology.
To add a correction for a frequently misheard term (e.g., your project's name or a client's name), go to Settings → Vocabulary and add the word. Otter will apply the correction retroactively and in future meetings.
What you should see: A full meeting transcript with highlighted summary, action items, and clickable timestamps that jump to the moment something was said.
From the meeting view, click Share:
For recurring client meetings, consider emailing the Otter summary link directly to the client team after each call. It demonstrates organized follow-up and gives them a searchable record of what was discussed.
What you should see: Recipients receiving a clean, formatted meeting summary with clickable audio playback linked to each transcript section.
In the Otter dashboard, use the Search bar at the top to find any term across all your past meeting transcripts.
Search for "go-live date" and see every meeting where that phrase was mentioned, with timestamps. Search for a client name and get a history of every conversation where they came up.
This cross-meeting search is one of Otter's most powerful features for PMs — when a stakeholder disputes what was agreed three meetings ago, you can find the exact moment it was said in seconds.
What you should see: Search results organized by meeting, with each match showing a snippet of transcript context and a link to jump to that moment.
Use these in Otter's AI Chat feature (available in the meeting transcript view under the "Ask Otter" button):
Extract all action items with owners:
List every action item mentioned in this meeting. For each one include: the task, who is responsible, and any deadline that was stated. If no deadline was mentioned, mark it as "TBD."
Summarize for someone who missed the meeting:
Write a 3-paragraph summary of this meeting for a stakeholder who wasn't present. Cover: what was discussed, what decisions were made, and what the key next steps are.
Identify unresolved questions:
List every question raised in this meeting that was not answered or resolved during the call. These are open items that need follow-up before the next meeting.
Draft a follow-up email:
Write a follow-up email to the meeting attendees summarizing what was agreed. Use a professional tone. Include action items as a numbered list at the end. Subject line: "Recap: [Meeting Name] — [Date]"
Identify risks mentioned:
Based on this transcript, list any risks, concerns, or red flags that were raised during the meeting — even casually mentioned. I want to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.