Claude Code Guide
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Walk Into Your 1:1 Already Prepared

Stop opening Slack and Jira five minutes before a 1:1. One prompt gets you a one-page brief: context, open items, and questions to ask and expect.

Shadman RahmanShadman RahmanPrincipal PM

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2 minutes Meeting prep skill, Calendar MCP Opus 4.7 or Sonnet 4.6By Shadman Rahman

how it works

  1. 01 / 06

    Your 1:1 is in thirty minutes.

    You see it on your calendar. You haven't thought about the person all week.

  2. 02 / 06

    You drop the prompt into Claude.

    One paste. Two minutes of your time.

  3. 03 / 06

    Claude pulls from email, calendar, and project notes.

    Anything you've connected. Anything where this person shows up.

  4. 04 / 06

    Claude writes you a one-page brief.

    Recent context, open items, three questions to ask, two answers to have ready.

  5. 05 / 06

    You skim it on the walk over.

    Phone or laptop. Whatever's open.

  6. 06 / 06

    You walk in already knowing.

    Honest, calm, prepared. Like you'd been thinking about it all week.

The prompt

Drop this into Claude with the person's name in the placeholder. Run it the morning of the meeting, not the day before.

Try this prompt
Prep me for my 1:1 with . Pull recent emails between us, the last 4 meeting notes I have on them, and any open project items where they're a stakeholder. Write a one-page brief with: Recent context (what's been happening with them), Open items (anything I owe them or they owe me), 3 questions I should ask them today, and 2 things I should be ready to answer. Keep it skimmable. I'm walking to the meeting in 5 minutes.

Click a violet field and type your own details, then copy.

What you get back

From Claude

1:1 brief: Sarah Chen · Friday 9:00 AM

Recent context

  • Sarah took over the dashboard project from Marcus three weeks ago.
  • Last sync (April 22): she flagged a Q3 headcount question for the Search team.
  • Two stakeholder threads since then mention scope creep on the data platform.

Open items

  • You owe her: a one-pager on the Match Maker roadmap (mentioned April 22)
  • She owes you: clarity on whether the dashboard handover scope is final
  • Both: the six-month roadmap Sarah asked for "early May"

Questions to ask

  1. Is the Q3 headcount conversation moving with leadership yet?
  2. What's the ceiling on what I can commit to in the dashboard handover before checking with you?
  3. Are you OK with me front-loading discovery work in the new scope, or should delivery commitments come first?

Be ready to answer

  • "What does the new scope mean for the Match Maker roadmap?"
  • "How are you thinking about Q3 OKRs given the recent reorg?"

Variations

Same shape, different relationships.

For a first 1:1 with someone new
Prep me for my first 1:1 with . I don't have any meeting history with them. Pull what you can find: any emails, any Slack or Teams threads, any documents they've authored or commented on. Help me build a profile: what they care about based on what they've written, who they collaborate with, where they sit in the org. Then suggest 5 open-ended questions I can use to get to know them.

Click a violet field and type your own details, then copy.

For a quarterly check-in
Prep me for my quarterly check-in with . It's been about 12 weeks since we last spoke. Pull our last 3 conversations and surface: what was outstanding then, what's changed in their org since, and what I committed to that I haven't followed up on. Don't sugarcoat the followups I missed. I'd rather walk in honest than blindsided.

Click a violet field and type your own details, then copy.

For a skip-level meeting
Prep me for a skip-level with (my manager's manager). Pull what you can on their priorities right now: recent emails or comms they've sent broadly, any docs they own, the projects they've been mentioned on. Then help me figure out: what does this person care about that's different from what my direct manager cares about, and what's worth raising with them that I haven't gotten traction on at the level below.

Click a violet field and type your own details, then copy.

Tips and gotchas

Run it the morning of, not the day before. State changes overnight. That email Sarah sent at 11pm or that PR Marcus merged at 7am won't be in yesterday's snapshot.

Don't paste secrets into the prompt. Names, project names, meeting dates are fine. API keys, customer data, compensation numbers stay out.

If the person doesn't show up in the brief, give Claude a hint. "Sarah Chen, my manager since the reorg in March." One sentence of context fixes most cases where Claude couldn't find them.

Ready to try?

Copy and paste
Prep me for my 1:1 with . Pull recent emails between us, the last 4 meeting notes I have on them, and any open project items where they're a stakeholder. Write a one-page brief with: Recent context (what's been happening with them), Open items (anything I owe them or they owe me), 3 questions I should ask them today, and 2 things I should be ready to answer. Keep it skimmable. I'm walking to the meeting in 5 minutes.

Click a violet field and type your own details, then copy.

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On this page

The promptWhat you get backRecent contextOpen itemsQuestions to askBe ready to answerVariationsTips and gotchasReady to try?