Keep your shared 1:1 doc—or switch?

Keep your shared 1:1 document if both of you can prepare in it, recover an earlier decision and find what remains open. Evaluate software when you can name a job the document handles poorly—even after you have agreed how to use it.

A manager in a public preparation discussion described an Excel sheet with prompts about focus, blockers and development, then asked what preparation should involve beyond rereading previous notes. That is a useful starting question. A meeting feeling thin does not, by itself, tell you which tool to buy.

Check one real preparation

Before your next 1:1, open the record you already use with one direct report. Try four checks:

1. Prepare together. Can each person add the topic they actually want to discuss? Is it clear when to add it?
2. Recover a decision. Find the last decision you need to revisit and the reason behind it. Notice whether you search one record or reconstruct it from several places.
3. Update a commitment. Find an unfinished action, its owner and its latest state. Can you update it without leaving conflicting copies?
4. Notice the upkeep. Count the places you must update after the meeting. Ask your report what work the arrangement creates for them, too.

Keep the observations small and concrete: where you searched, what was missing, what you copied. You are inspecting the record, not rating the employee.

If neither person adds topics despite an accessible agenda, first agree a preparation habit. If decisions remain hard to recover despite consistent notes, investigate organisation or search. Those are different problems.

Match the route to the missing job

A shared document or spreadsheet remains a reasonable choice when you can keep dated entries, a current action list and a clear next agenda together. Try those changes before migrating. Lighthouse’s note-taking guide already describes several ways to capture and revisit 1:1 notes; changing the medium is only one option.

A general meeting tool may already handle the missing work. Fellow documents carrying incomplete talking points and action items into the next meeting, with settings for automatic or prompted carry-forward and linked copies. If you already use Fellow, check that configuration before adding another system.

A people-platform module can be worth keeping when the team already works there. Lattice documents a shared 1:1 agenda, recurring notes and preparation/follow-up reminders. Check what your organisation has enabled and whether it meets the gap you found.

1on1 focuses on a guided, written recurring manager–direct report workflow: agenda, session context, tracked actions and follow-up. Inspect it when that connected workflow is the missing job. Ask whether it would replace the searching and copying you observed, and what new upkeep it would introduce. Continuity alone is not an exclusive feature or a reason to switch.

Leave with a decision

Choose stay if the document supports the work with acceptable upkeep. Choose configure if an existing tool already supplies the missing function. Choose evaluate if a specific gap remains—and write that gap down before exploring another product.

For 1on1, compare that gap with the product workflow, then follow the self-service pair checklist. On 22 October 2026, its pricing page lists a seven-day full-feature trial, followed by Free for one manager and one direct report. That pair-sized route lets you observe continuity across naturally spaced weekly 1:1s beyond the trial. Do not assume every trial feature continues on Free.

Your next step today: audit one preparation in your document. If a gap remains and 1on1 fits it, use the checklist to start with one pair. For product questions, the demo enquiry is an alternative. Describe the workflow you need; keep employee notes out of the enquiry.

Sources and references

• Manager discussion: How do you prepare for your 1:1s?
• Lighthouse: How to take notes in your one on ones
• Fellow Help: Carry Incomplete Items Forward
• Lattice Help: A List of Email Notifications for 1:1s
• 1on1: Product workflow
• 1on1: Self-service pilot checklist
• 1on1: Demo enquiry
• 1on1: Pricing and trial terms, read 22 October 2026