What This Template Is For
The 1:1 is the most important recurring meeting on a PM's calendar. It is where you build trust with your manager, align with engineers on what matters, and keep stakeholders informed before surprises happen. As Manager Tools teaches, the 1:1 is the foundational management practice that makes everything else work. Despite this, most 1:1s run without structure: they become status updates that could have been a Slack message, or they meander until someone glances at the clock.
This template gives you a ready-to-use agenda for three types of PM 1:1s: PM-to-manager, PM-to-engineer, and PM-to-stakeholder. Each format includes a structured agenda, a question bank, and an action item tracker. The goal is to make every 30-minute slot productive and to create a running record you can reference later.
If you are a new PM leader running 1:1s with your reports for the first time, the Stakeholder Management Handbook covers how to build the relationships that make these conversations effective.
How to Use This Template
- Pick the format that matches your 1:1 type (manager, engineer, or stakeholder).
- Copy the agenda into a shared doc. Both participants should have edit access.
- Fill in your items before the meeting. Spend 5 minutes prepping, not scrambling at the start.
- During the meeting, take notes directly in the doc. Capture decisions and action items in real time.
- At the end, confirm action items with owners and due dates. Review them at the start of the next 1:1.
- Keep a running doc instead of creating a new one each week. This builds a searchable history you can reference for performance reviews, project retrospectives, and career conversations.
Template 1: PM-to-Manager 1:1
Use this when meeting with your direct manager (Director, VP Product, CPO). The purpose is alignment, unblocking, and career development.
Frequency. Weekly, 30 minutes.
Agenda
Date: [Date]
1. Check-in (2 min)
- How are you doing this week? (Energy level, workload, morale)
2. Top priorities this week (5 min)
- Priority 1: [Initiative/project]. Status: On track / At risk / Blocked
- Priority 2: [Initiative/project]. Status: On track / At risk / Blocked
- Priority 3: [Initiative/project]. Status: On track / At risk / Blocked
3. Blockers and asks (10 min)
- [Blocker or decision you need your manager's help with]
- [Stakeholder conflict, resource constraint, or scope question]
- Specific ask: [What you need from your manager this week]
4. Wins and learnings (5 min)
- [Something that went well and why]
- [Something you learned or would do differently]
5. Career development (5 min, rotate bi-weekly)
- [Skill you are working on]
- [Feedback you are seeking]
- [Opportunity you want to discuss: stretch project, visibility, training]
6. Action items (3 min)
| Action | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|
| [Action] | [Name] | [Date] |
| [Action] | [Name] | [Date] |
PM-to-Manager Question Bank
Pull from these when you need to go deeper on a topic.
On priorities and alignment:
- What should I deprioritize to make room for [new ask]?
- How does [initiative] rank against other team priorities right now?
- Is there context from the leadership team I should know about?
On feedback:
- What is one thing I could do differently in how I communicate with the team?
- Where did you see me have the most impact last month?
- What would it take for me to be ready for [next role/level]?
On stakeholders:
- How should I handle the disagreement with [stakeholder] on [issue]?
- Who else should I be building a relationship with?
- Are there upcoming decisions where my input would be useful?
On career:
- What skills are most important for the next step in my career here?
- Is there a cross-functional project I could lead to build [specific skill]?
- How are you thinking about team structure for next quarter?
Template 2: PM-to-Engineer 1:1
Use this when meeting with your engineering lead or individual engineers on your team. The purpose is building trust, surfacing technical concerns early, and ensuring the engineer feels heard.
Frequency. Weekly or bi-weekly, 30 minutes.
Agenda
Date: [Date]
1. Check-in (2 min)
- How is the sprint going? What has your energy been like this week?
2. Current work (8 min)
- What are you working on right now?
- Is anything taking longer than expected? Why?
- Do you have what you need to keep moving?
3. Blockers and concerns (8 min)
- [Technical blocker, unclear requirement, or dependency]
- [Anything about the product direction you are unsure about]
- Is there a decision I need to make to unblock you?
4. Product context (5 min)
- Here is why [current feature] matters to users: [context]
- Customer feedback on [recent release]: [summary]
- Upcoming priorities: [what is coming next and why]
5. Their agenda (5 min)
- What is on your mind that we have not covered?
6. Action items (2 min)
| Action | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|
| [Action] | [Name] | [Date] |
| [Action] | [Name] | [Date] |
PM-to-Engineer Question Bank
On the work:
- Is there anything in the current spec that feels underspecified?
- Are there technical tradeoffs I should know about for [feature]?
- What would you build differently if you had an extra week?
On the team:
- How are code reviews going? Any bottlenecks?
- Is the sprint workload sustainable? Too light? Too heavy?
- Do you feel like the team is working on the right things?
On the product:
- Do you understand why we are building [feature]?
- If you were the PM, what would you prioritize differently?
- What is the most technically interesting problem you have worked on recently?
On the relationship:
- Am I giving you enough context on product decisions?
- Is there a way I could make your work easier?
- Do you feel comfortable pushing back when you disagree with a product decision?
Template 3: PM-to-Stakeholder 1:1
Use this when meeting with stakeholders outside your direct team: Sales leads, Customer Success, Marketing, Finance, or other PMs. The purpose is maintaining alignment, sharing context, and surfacing cross-functional issues before they escalate.
Frequency. Bi-weekly or monthly, 30 minutes.
Agenda
Date: [Date]
Stakeholder: [Name, Role]
1. Check-in (2 min)
- What is top of mind for your team right now?
2. Product updates relevant to them (8 min)
- [Feature/launch] shipping in [timeframe]. What they need to know: [details]
- [Roadmap change] and how it affects their team: [context]
- Timeline update on [item they asked about previously]: [status]
3. Their input and concerns (10 min)
- What are you hearing from [customers/prospects/internal users]?
- Are there gaps in what we are building that affect your team's goals?
- [Specific question you need their expertise on]
4. Requests and commitments (5 min)
- [What they need from product this month]
- [What you need from their team this month]
5. Action items (5 min)
| Action | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|
| [Action] | [Name] | [Date] |
| [Action] | [Name] | [Date] |
PM-to-Stakeholder Question Bank
For Sales stakeholders:
- What are the top 3 feature requests from deals in the pipeline right now?
- Which competitor are you losing to most often, and why?
- Are there product gaps blocking deals above [deal size]?
For Customer Success stakeholders:
- Which customers are at highest churn risk right now, and is it product-related?
- What are the most common feature requests from renewal conversations?
- Are there onboarding issues with any recent feature launches?
For Marketing stakeholders:
- What content or messaging is performing best right now?
- Are there product capabilities we are not marketing effectively?
- What competitive positioning angles are resonating with prospects?
For other PMs:
- Are there dependencies between our roadmaps we should coordinate on?
- Is there shared infrastructure or a common design pattern we could reuse?
- Are we hearing similar feedback from different user segments?
Tips for Running Effective 1:1s
- The other person's agenda comes first. Your 1:1 with your report or cross-functional partner is their meeting, not yours. Start by asking what is on their mind. Kim Scott makes this point in Radical Candor: the most productive 1:1s happen when the direct report sets the agenda, not the manager. Status updates can happen asynchronously.
- Keep a running doc. Do not start fresh each week. A running doc with dated entries creates an invaluable record for performance reviews, escalations, and tracking patterns over time. If you are in your first 90 days as a PM, these notes become your institutional memory.
- Track action items religiously. Open every 1:1 by reviewing last week's action items. If they are not getting done, either they are not important (remove them) or something is blocking progress (discuss it).
- Rotate between tactical and strategic topics. Not every 1:1 needs to cover career development. Not every 1:1 should be pure status. Alternate: two tactical weeks, one strategic week. The cadence depends on the relationship and the moment.
- Ask for feedback on how the 1:1 is going. Every month or two, ask: "Is this meeting useful? What should we change?" The best 1:1 format is the one both participants actually look forward to.
- Use the PM Maturity Assessment to anchor career conversations. Instead of vague discussions about "growth areas," use a structured self-assessment to identify specific skills to develop. It gives career 1:1s a concrete starting point.
Key Takeaways
- The 1:1 is the PM's most important recurring meeting. Treat it with the same discipline as sprint planning or quarterly reviews
- Use different agenda formats for managers, engineers, and stakeholders. Each relationship has different goals
- Keep a running doc. Dated entries create institutional memory and a record for performance reviews
- Open every 1:1 by reviewing last week's action items. Accountability compounds over time
- Rotate between tactical and strategic topics. Not every session needs to cover career development, but it should happen regularly
About This Template
Created by: Tim Adair
Last Updated: 2/19/2026
Version: 1.0.0
License: Free for personal and commercial use