The Exec’s Guide to High-Impact 1:1s
Leverage the People, Process, Product, OMM framework to up level your conversation from a status update to a team operating system
At Nextdoor, I inherited a fast-scaling team in a state of decision fatigue. At Braintrust, I helped shape a product org during a period of distributed, async growth. In both environments, one thing remained a key to my leadership success, and that is that I needed other people to get out of their way and move the business forward. However, our conversations would frequently degenerate into a laundry list of status updates that could have been sent asynchronously, rather than impactful discovery conversations about running the business together. Done right, 1:1s become the leadership operating system.
Here’s the framework I learned from the C-Suite at Nextdoor, honed over years of leading product teams: People. Process. Product. With a bonus addition, On My Mind! It keeps the conversation grounded in what matters, while adapting to each person’s needs and stage of growth, as well as the company's current needs.
People
Who do you want to thank? Who is getting in your way? How are you doing? Is there an area you want to focus on from a perspective of coaching and career growth?
Your people are not working alone for the most part. They require a connection with marketing, engineering, design, and other executives. Frequently, it is those people who can make or break your PM’s ability to ship impactful projects, especially in larger organizations where these connection webs get more complicated. By starting your 1:1s focused on people, as a manager, you quickly hone in on what is and isn't working around the company and who is making it so. Additionally, you can learn from and thank the people doing the work. A “thank you” from a skip level or even a manager who isn’t the individual’s direct reporting line goes a long way in making them feel noticed for their work. On the contrary, if someone is a blocker, it is better for you to learn about what is going on earlier, by explicitly adding this focus and open space to your 1:1s.
Process: Are We Building the Right System
When we delve into this section, I am mostly curious about the company rather than individual products or team processes; however, these topics also arise. The opportunity is for us to review what is and what isn’t working and get beyond the people to how we make what is working repeatable and faster, improve the predictability of outcomes, and focus on automating out the drudgery. Think of it like systems hygiene.
Questions to guide the conversation:
What part of our current processes or tools feels broken?
Are we getting a useful signal from our experiments and launches? How are we evaluating them? Are the metrics we chose vanity metrics or actual leading indicators?
How is cross-functional alignment going (really)? Tell me more?
At Nextdoor, we used 1:1s to surface small process tweaks that had a compounding effect, such as removing redundant syncs, fixing feedback loops, and clarifying ownership.
Product: Are We Focusing on What Matters?
This is where you zoom out, beyond backlog grooming and into strategic clarity. This section is last for a reason, as we are likely already aligned here through other cross-functional conversations. I want to focus on looking ahead and beyond corners here.
Questions to guide the conversation:
What are the most important bets we’re placing right now?
What are some of the unknowns we have in our assumptions? How can we get smarter sooner?
What do you think the company is underestimating or overestimating?
What’s the next 6–12 month story we’re building toward?
At both Braintrust and Nextdoor, I’d often ask my Directors to “narrate the future”—not just explain the roadmap. Meaning challenging us to look beyond what is in front of our noses, and then walking back to today in order to make that future a reality we want. If they couldn’t, we had a clarity problem, and we’d need to break things down further. If they could, we worked together to amplify that vision.
Must: Career Development and Well-being
Building on the strong focus on the people you are working with, what has worked for me is setting aside a monthly 1:1 session for career development and progression. This ensures that the focus on your direct reports' success in the company and outside of it does not get drowned out by the constant drumbeat of status updates. Yes, you will need those, and yes, you will get them, but they can wait. Ensuring you set aside time to focus on the person’s goals, challenges, and professional and personal development puts your team on the path of most effectiveness and aligns with the broader goal of making people valued and supported. One of my best career accomplishments has been that people want to work with me again. Being people-first goes beyond lip service and into truly understanding the needs of each individual.
Yes, you will get an update… and discuss work. But this is first and foremost about helping the PM reach their potential Marty Cagan says from svpg.com
What makes a 1:1 great?
The direct report owns the agenda, with your structure, coaching, and challenge layered in.
You don’t just react—you shape. Don’t turn it into triage. And please don’t backslide into status updates.
Systems thinking across 1:1s. The real org health data lives there, and your ability to see the system and help connect the dots is why you are in your seat.
Bonus: Managing Up in Your 1:1 with the CPO
If you’re on the receiving end of a 1:1 with your CPO, CPTO, or another senior exec, here’s how to make it count:
Start with the signal. What do they need to know about you? As a Director or VP, you are the reflection of your team, your bets, and your team’s blockers. What is the CPO or CPTO’s unique context? What is going on at the company? What do they care about? What does success look like to them? How can you position your and your team’s work in a way that matters to that context?
Bring a point of view. Don’t just report up—advocate, reframe, and propose solutions, rather than just raise problems. They don’t just want to know why things are happening; they want to know what you are doing about it, and the areas that they should be looking at and can add value for you.
Use it to align, not perform. It’s a strategic checkpoint, not a test. Overcome your anxiety and join the conversation as a peer. It is ok not to know the answer, make sure you get it, or if there is no answer, be able to have an intellectual debate and pull in the right stakeholders, data or opportunities.
Anticipate. The best directors anticipate their managers’ operating system. Things like, does your manager like to share their own on my mind on Sunday mornings? Is there a quarterly board meeting? When is it, and what are the topics? Is there a way your manager likes to receive information - pre-reads, talk out loud, etc., and what is top of mind for them, so they can get ahead of the ask?
At Braintrust, some of the most impactful product, design, data science, and engineering leads I worked with brought crisp POVs, sharp tradeoff thinking, and invited challenges. They were in the driver’s seat of both the conversation and the results, including what they needed for their squads to be successful. At Nextdoor, we used 1:1s to co-create narratives for the boardroom and company-wide priorities.
When you treat 1:1s as shared leadership space, not just a management ritual, you build trust faster, drive meaningful outcomes, and an operating system that is resilient and greater than the sum of its parts.
Your turn.
How are your 1:1s shaping your team’s momentum?
And if you’re an aspiring product exec, how are you using yours to grow?
If you're looking for help on how to uplevel your product team’s operating system, please reach out. I enjoy coaching product and GTM leaders on refining their management and leadership styles to adapt to the company's evolving needs. Equally, if you are curious about how to get the right GTM, Financial Acumen, and Executive presence skills, join the next cohort of GTM for Product Leaders.