Questions for 1:1 Meetings

Personal

Happiness

• What brought you joy this week?
• What brought you pain? Are you okay sharing it with me?
• What’s motivating you this week?
• What’s draining you this week?
• How is your work-load this week?
• How productive were you this past week (according to your standards )?
• Are you happy working here?
• If you would define your "Happiness Meter" on a 1-10 scale (1=Super bummed, 10=Excited as hell) where are you?
• What keeps you engaged with your daily work?
• What is the best accomplishment you had since you are here?
• Do you feel appreciated for it?
• What wins you had this week you want to celebrate?

Team

Collaboration and relations

• Who inspires you in the team?
• Is there anybody in the team that you find it difficult to work with? Why?
• Do you receive feedback from team members?
• If so on what occasions and from whom?
• Do you feel the feedback was valuable?
• Do you feel like you’re on the same page with the team?
• What were your biggest time-wasters or roadblocks you encounter in your daily work?
• What’s keeping you from doing your best work?

Project

Short-term goals

• How is the project going? What can I do to help?
• Is anything in the pipeline unclear, confusing or blocking?
• What challenges have you run into that I can help you with?
• Do you anticipate any friction I can help with?
• Do you have any questions about the goals for the project?
• What are the type of projects you would be interested in working on next?
• What have you tried since our last 1:1 that didn’t work?
• Why do you think it failed?
• What’s the biggest thing you need to learn this week?

Career

Long-term goals / Personal development plan

• What do you want to achieve in the next 3 years?
• How are your skills/strengths evolving?
• How do you think about your progress on your big goals?
• What needs to be done to move towards the goals?
• What can I do to help?
• What kind of training or experience would you like to be involved in?
• Do you feel like you are learning at work?
• What are the areas you want to learn more about?
• Do you feel challenged at work?
• What are the new things you learned lately?
• Would you like more coaching?
• If so, in which areas?

Example of the Personal Development Plan 

Feedback for me

Manager improvement

• What do expect of me? What will you consider as a success?
• What can I do as a manager to make your work easier?
• What’s one thing I need to know but don’t want to hear?
• Is there anything I can do to help you be more successful?
• Is there anything I can do right now to make your week more successful?
• What current roadblock you need me to move?
• How did I show up for you?
• How do you need me to show up for you next week?
• Is there anything you wish I was doing more of/less of?
• What questions should I be asking you that I haven’t?
• Are there any big opportunities you think the company is missing and we should explore (e.g. adding design system, having team mentors..) ?

Example of any easy exercise for feedback

These questions are a collections of topics I've gathered from different places, for example a thread about this exactly at the wonderful slack. Use what works better for you, I'm mixing them based on the person I meet.

Follow-up meetings

Using https://navigator.com to keep track

Agenda

1. Overview of your product
2. High level Backlog
3. Overview of the team
4. Issues, things that go well and suggestions
5. Review Goals

Notes

• This the place to write down important takes from the meeting

Action

• Action #1 to follow
• Action #2 to follow

Next meeting agenda

Following up on X action we discussed in our previous meeting

Reading List

What should you ask a new employee in a first one-on-one meeting?

You've got your first one-on-one meeting with a new employee scheduled. Here are the 15 questions you should put on the one-on-one meeting agenda. The other week, I held a one-on-one meeting with a new employee - the first I've conducted in a while.

knowyourteam.com

The 5 mistakes you're likely making in your one-on-one meetings with direct reports

Don't waste your time. Make sure you're getting the most out of your one-on-one meetings with your direct reports. You're feeling good: You've started to hold regular one-on-one meetings with direct reports. But have you paused to ask yourself, lately, "Am I making the most of them?" The question is worth asking.

knowyourteam.com

You've got your first one-on-one meeting with an employee: How to prepare?

If you're a new manager, here are the exact one-on-one meeting questions, agenda template, and approach you can take for your first one-on-one meeting with an employee. If there's anything you should be supremely focused on as a new manager, it's your first one-on-one meeting with an employee.

knowyourteam.com

The one-on-one meeting template for your end of the year review

What should you do for your end-of-the-year review with an employee? Use this one-on-one meeting template. With December upon us (already!), many managers have been asking me if I have a one-on-one meeting template for their end-of-the-year review with a direct report.

knowyourteam.com

How to run the best one-on-one meetings

One of the most under-appreciated tools of any managers toolkit is that of the one-on-one meeting. It's a regular time for you to connect with each person reporting to you, get a sense of what they're working on, where their priorities are, any obstacles that are in their way, share information they need to know, and (most importantly!)

medium.com

Take Your One on One Meeting to the Next Level With These 6 Tips for Managers

By now, it's clear to most that 1:1 meetings matter. The pro-tip of setting up a dedicated weekly checkpoint is on virtually every list of best practices for managers these days. Carving out a corner on your calendar for surfacing issues, nurturing that incredibly important employee-manager relationship, and sharing feedback more consistently is undeniably important.

firstround.com