PO 1:1 Template

# Product Ops 1:1 Template

**IC:** ___________
**Manager:** ___________
**Cadence:** Weekly, 30 minutes
**Doc location:** Shared Google Doc, IC owns and edits before each session

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## How this 1:1 works

- **The IC drives the agenda.** The manager comes prepared but does not run the meeting.
- **No status updates.** Status lives in the team's weekly written summary.
- **Cancel only as a last resort.** A canceled 1:1 must be rescheduled within the same week.

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## Weekly agenda (~25 minutes)

### 1. Wellbeing check (2 min)
- How are you, on a scale of 1-10? Any context worth sharing?

### 2. Top of mind (10 min)
- What's the one thing on your mind this week?
- What decision do you need help making?
- Where do you feel stuck?

### 3. Blockers (5 min)
- What needs to be unblocked? Who can unblock it?
- What's on my list (manager) that I owe you?

### 4. Career growth — IC's question (5 min)
- IC raises one growth topic per week. Examples:
  - Skill I'm trying to develop
  - Work I'd like more reps on
  - Work I'd like less of
  - A connection I want help making

### 5. Manager's standing question (3 min)
The manager rotates through these every four weeks:
- Week A: What feedback do you have for me?
- Week B: What feedback do you have for the team?
- Week C: What's the next thing you want to learn?
- Week D: What would you change about how we work?

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## Monthly rotation (replace section 5 once per month)

### Month 1 — Retro
- What's working in our team's operating system?
- What's broken?
- What experiment do you want to run next month?

### Month 2 — Career
- Where do you want to be in 12 months?
- What is the gap between here and there?
- What's the one thing this quarter that closes some of that gap?

### Month 3 — Feedback
- Two things I should keep doing as your manager.
- Two things I should change.
- Two things I should start doing.

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## Notes log

| Date | Top topic | Decisions | Action items (owner, due) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| YYYY-MM-DD | | | |
| YYYY-MM-DD | | | |
| YYYY-MM-DD | | | |
| YYYY-MM-DD | | | |

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## Anti-patterns to avoid

- Manager talking more than the IC
- Becoming a status meeting
- Skipping for any non-emergency reason
- "I have nothing to talk about" — that's a signal worth digging into, not a reason to end early