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This content was rescued from the TTS Handbook as of May 15, 2025

Note that links to google documents no longer work.

One-on-Ones

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One-to-ones are a foundational management tool. This guide provides a template and detailed guidance on how to hold effective 1:1s. It’s written with engineering leaders in mind — supervisors, facilitators, and possibly functional leads — but likely could be applied, with tweaks, to other situations. —

The fundamental purpose of 1:1s is to build a relationship. Strong relationships are the cornerstone of leadership: everything else we do becomes easier when we have strong relationships. At TTS, 1:1s help managers fulfill our mission of servant leadership: we can better help the people on our team when we have a strong enough relationship that they feel comfortable asking for help.

There are many ways of holding 1:1s. As you practice, you’ll probably find a format and style that fits you and your partner[^1].

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Throughout this document I use the term “partner” to mean “the person with whom you’re holding the 1:1”. This replaces the stuffy and more Management-ese term “direct” that many 1:1 guides use, and emphasizes that at TTS, the person you’re holding 1:1s with may not formally report to you. And even if they do, you’re more likely to be in a servant-leadership role than in a command-and-control settings.

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Since getting starting holding 1:1s can be daunting to people who haven’t done it before, this document provides a model as a starting point. Here’s the basic model:

• Hold half-hour 1:1s weekly, and never miss them (rescheduling is OK).
• 1:1s are work meetings, so have a consistent agenda. A good one is: ten minutes for them, ten minutes for you, ten minutes to talk about the future.
• The most important part of the agenda is your partner’s. Let them lead the conversation, even if it means skipping whatever you’ve got on your agenda.

That’s the summary; the rest of this document goes into (much) more detail on the mechanics, specifics of the agenda, and further reading.

Finally, note that 1:1s are a tool, not the point in their own right. At the end of this document there are few notes on alternate strategies for fulfilling the relationship-building goals of 1:1s. Experimentation is in our DNA; please feel free to use this as a starting point to find what works!

Basic Mechanics

There are many ways you could conduct 1:1s; a good default is: weekly, half-hour meetings, with a consistent agenda.

Suggested cadence: Weekly

The most common successful cadence for 1:1s is to hold them weekly.

More important than the specific cadence, however, is this: never cancel a 1:1. You don’t need to be rigid about schedules — it’s fine to reschedule — but missing a 1:1 sends a very powerful message that your relationship with your partner isn’t important. It is important — it’s the most important — so once you’ve picked a cadence: stick to it.

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Vacations are an exception: if one of you is going to be gone for a week, obviously don’t intrude on vacation to hold meetings! But they’re basically the only good reason to completely cancel (rather than reschedule) a 1:1.

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To new managers, or to managers new to 1:1s, weekly can seem like a lot, but there are several reasons why weekly 1:1s tend to be the most effective:

1. The goal of 1:1s is building relationships, and that’s hard to do if you don’t speak frequently. Think about the people you have really solid, good relationships with. I’ll bet most of them are people you talk to at least weekly, if not more. It’s very hard to build a relationship with someone you only see monthly. And, when you do hold less-frequent 1:1s, they tend to be much more filled with tactical work and leave little time for longer-term, goal-oriented work.