What questions should I ask in a 1:1?

Mix check-in, workload, career, and feedback questions, and pick the set that fits what the meeting is for that week. A weekly meeting leans on check-in and blocker questions. A monthly one makes room for career and growth. Let their topics lead and use your questions to go deeper.

How many questions should a 1:1 cover?

Two to four real questions is plenty. A 1:1 is their meeting, so let their topics lead and use your questions to open the conversation and go deeper, not to run down a checklist. A handful of good questions you actually follow up on beats ten you rush through.

What should I ask in a first 1:1?

Ask how they like to receive feedback, how they work best, and what they want from a manager. A first 1:1 is for setting up the working relationship, not for status. Learning their preferences early saves months of guessing and makes every later conversation easier.

How do I follow up on 1:1 answers?

Save the answer per person, then open the next meeting with it. When someone says they want to lead a project or learn a skill, write it down under their name. Next time you can say "last month you mentioned wanting to lead a project, here is one," which proves you listened and turns a question into a follow-through.

What questions should I avoid?

Avoid yes or no questions like "everything good?", status-only questions you could answer from the board, and loaded questions that signal the answer you want to hear. They dead-end the conversation or pressure the person into telling you what they think you want.

1:1 Meetings

1:1 Meeting Questions, Organized by What the Meeting Is For

NBy the Notivo Team · Updated June 2026

The best one-on-one questions depend on what the meeting is for. Below are copyable lists by purpose, plus the one thing every question list skips: the answers.

The best one-on-one questions depend on what the meeting is for. Use check-in questions weekly ("What's on your mind this week?"), career questions monthly ("Where do you want to be in a year?"), feedback questions in both directions ("What could I do differently?"), and a different set for a first 1:1 ("How do you like to get feedback?"). Copyable lists by purpose are below. One thing every question list skips: the answers. A great question is wasted if the answer evaporates before the next meeting, so capture the answers per person and pick up where you left off.

The full question list, grouped by purpose

Copy the list below and keep it somewhere you'll see it before each 1:1. Don't run down all of it. Pick the two to four questions that match what this week's meeting is for, then let the person's own topics lead. The point is to have good openers ready, not to interview your report.

Copy the question list

1:1 QUESTIONS, BY PURPOSE
Pick 2-4 for the meeting. Let their topics lead.

WEEKLY CHECK-IN (run every week)
- What's top of mind this week?
- Where are you blocked, and what do you need from me?
- What went well since we last talked?

PROGRESS / WORKLOAD
- What are you most (and least) excited about right now?
- Is anything taking longer than it should? Why?
- What would you drop if you could?

CAREER / GROWTH (monthly is plenty)
- Where do you want to be in 12-18 months?
- What work makes you lose track of time?
- What skill do you want to build this quarter?

FEEDBACK (both directions)
- What's one thing I could do differently as your manager?
- Is there feedback you've been holding back?
- Where do you want more (or less) from me?

FIRST 1:1 (set up the relationship)
- How do you like to receive feedback?
- What does a good manager do, and what do they avoid?
- What should I know about how you work best?

DON'T ASK
- "Everything good?" (dead-ends in "yeah, fine")
- Status you could get from the board or standup
- Loaded questions that telegraph the answer you want

Weekly check-in questions

These are your bread and butter, the ones you reach for almost every week. They surface what's on the person's mind and where they need help before small problems grow.

"What's top of mind this week?"
"Where are you blocked, and what do you need from me?"
"What went well since we last talked?"

Progress and workload questions

Use these when you want to read how the work actually feels, not just whether tickets are moving. They tend to surface burnout, boredom, and quiet overcommitment early.

"What are you most, and least, excited about right now?"
"Is anything taking longer than it should? Why?"
"What would you drop if you could?"

Career and growth questions

You don't need these every week. Once a month is plenty, and the answers are some of the most valuable things you'll ever capture about a report, because they tell you what to steer toward over the next year.

"Where do you want to be in 12 to 18 months?"
"What work makes you lose track of time?"
"What skill do you want to build this quarter?"

Feedback questions (both directions)

Feedback flows two ways in a good 1:1. Ask for feedback on yourself as often as you give it, and make the questions specific enough that "no, all good" isn't the easy answer.

"What's one thing I could do differently as your manager?"
"Is there feedback you've been holding back?"
"Where do you want more, or less, from me?"

First 1:1 questions

A first 1:1 has a different job. You're setting up the working relationship, not collecting status. Spend it learning how this person works so the next twenty meetings go better.

"How do you like to receive feedback?"
"What does a good manager do, and what do they avoid?"
"What should I know about how you work best?"

What not to ask

Some questions feel friendly but quietly kill the conversation. The most common offender is the open-but-empty opener.

"Everything good?" It dead-ends in "yeah, fine." It asks for reassurance, not the truth, and it tells the person you'd rather not hear about problems.
Status-only questions. Anything you could answer from the board, the standup, or the channel turns the 1:1 into a reporting meeting. Save the meeting for the things that don't show up anywhere else.
Loaded questions. "You're happy with how that went, right?" telegraphs the answer you want. People read the cue and give you the easy yes instead of the honest read.

Why most 1:1 questions go to waste

Here's the part the question lists never mention: the questions are the easy half. The hard half is remembering the answers a month later. You ask a great career question in a February 1:1, the person tells you exactly what they want to grow into, and by March it's gone, because it was said out loud in a meeting and never written down anywhere you'd look again.

That's where good intentions quietly fail. The most common 1:1 mistakes aren't about question quality at all. They're about follow-through: asking the same five questions forever, letting the meeting drift into a status update, asking for feedback and then getting defensive, and, most of all, not capturing the answers so you can come back to them. A question you don't remember the answer to was just small talk.

See how Notivo keeps 1:1 answers per person

Capture the answers, and the next meeting starts ahead

Good questions are only as good as your memory of the answers. The fix is to capture each answer the moment it lands, filed under the person who said it, so the next 1:1 starts from the last one instead of a blank page.

That's the habit Notivo is built around. Type @Sam, write one line about what they said, and it files itself into Sam's timeline. Next month, before your 1:1, you open Sam's timeline and read the thread: the project they wanted to lead, the feedback they gave you, the skill they're building. You walk in able to say, "Last month you said you wanted to lead a project. Here's one." That single sentence does more for trust than any clever question, because it proves you listened and you remembered.

Your private coaching notes stay private, separate from anything you'd share. Everything is private by default, account-scoped, and stored on secured infrastructure. Today you can capture notes on the web, tag people with @ and topics with #, see a per-person timeline for every report, and search across all of it. The questions get easier the moment the answers stop disappearing.

Start with one note Get the 1:1 notes template