Questions to ask in a 1:1: a list organized by intent

In a 1:1, a question is a means to an end. It's worth what it surfaces, and above all what you do with it next. A blocker raised and then left without follow-up even carries a cost: it created an expectation that never got met.

This page gathers a list of questions, sorted by intent. For each group, it spells out what the answer should trigger: a task, a commitment, a reshuffle of priorities. It's that follow-through, from question to action, that makes the conversation useful. It complements our guide to 1:1s; for the core set of five base questions, the 1:1 in the OKR glossary is enough.

Two habits raise the value of any question: phrasing it open, and leaving room for the answer before moving on.

Opening questions

They pick up on where the person's at and their energy that day. What they surface helps set up the rest of the session: easing off when the mental load is heavy, starting with the dominant topic if there is one.

• How are you, really, this week?
• Where's your energy at right now?
• If we could only handle one topic today, which would it be?

Questions on workload and priorities

They surface quiet overload or under-load, and the gaps between the priorities each side sees. The answer leads to a concrete call: drop a topic, push one back, realign the week.

• Is your workload sustainable through the end of the week?
• If you had to drop one thing this week, which would it be?
• Are the priorities I think are yours really the ones you see?
• What's slipping while we deal with the urgent?

When these priorities are tied to the team's OKRs, the call gets clearer: you know which objective you're serving when you decide.

Questions to surface blockers

The one-on-one is the right place for what doesn't get said in a team meeting. These questions bring out the obstacles and the calls the report can't make alone.

• What's blocking you right now that you can't lift on your own?
• Where do you need a decision from me?
• What do you need that you haven't dared ask for yet?
• What's the topic you were hoping we wouldn't bring up today?

This is the group where the follow-through matters most. A blocker that surfaces turns into a task, with an owner and a due date, then gets checked at the next session. Without that follow-up, the same blocker resurfaces unchanged week after week. The template built for this is laid out in our 1:1 template.

Career and development questions

The 1:1 also makes room for a person's longer-term path. Spaced out, these questions surface aspirations that, once named, become a development commitment you revisit over time.

• What do you want to grow in over the coming months?
• Is there a responsibility you'd like to take on that you don't have yet?
• What would give you the sense of having made real progress by the end of the quarter?

Feedback questions, both ways

The 1:1 is the natural channel for continuous feedback. The manager gives feedback in the moment and in context. They also ask for their own, which is rarer, and more useful: the answer often points to a blind spot to act on the very next week.

• What could I do differently to help you better?
• Is there a recent decision of mine you didn't understand?
• What feedback from me are you still waiting on that I haven't given you?

Questions by situation

A good 1:1 adapts to the person and the moment. Here are questions calibrated for the cases that come up most.

New hire. What surprised you since you arrived? What's still unclear in your role or in the way we work? What would you have needed sooner?

Underperformance. How do you see the current situation? What, in your view, explains the gap? What would you need for the next deadline to go differently? The point is to understand the cause before concluding.

Highly autonomous report. What should I know that I'm not seeing? Is there a topic where you miss my input? Here, the risk lies mainly in neglect: with so much autonomy, you can stop being useful. The question serves to stay useful without overloading.

Distributed team. What gets lost at a distance that we'd handle better together? Do you feel up to date on what matters? At a distance, you have to name explicitly what proximity used to settle on its own.

Skip-level (one level down). What's working well in your team? What would you like management to understand better? This 1:1 doesn't bypass the direct manager: it picks up signals that don't surface otherwise.

The questions to avoid

A few questions rarely lead to anything useful, and it's better to spot them.

A "why haven't you done this yet?" calls for a justification and puts the other on the defensive. An "is everything okay?" gets a reflexive "yes". Questions you already know the answer to sound like a test. Quick chains of closed questions turn into an interrogation. Their common thread: they surface nothing, and so lead to no action.

A well-asked question, on the other hand, surfaces something. You still have to pick it back up next time: a task kept, a commitment checked, a priority re-adjusted. That follow-up is exactly what we built Serendly for, tying each 1:1 to the team's objectives. To see how, discover our approach to 1:1s.