I've been using Fellow to manage my team's 1-on-1s for a few months now. The tool itself is great for organizing talking points and keeping notes. But I'm hitting a consistent problem: my direct reports rarely add their own items to the agenda before we meet. The meeting ends up being mostly my topics, which defeats the purpose.
I’ve tried sending reminders a day before, and I always populate a couple of starter items. But it still feels like I’m pulling teeth to get them to engage with the agenda proactively. They’ll add things *during* the meeting, but the pre-work just doesn’t happen.
Has anyone else dealt with this? What actually worked to make the agenda a collaborative document? I’m wondering if it’s a process issue, a cultural one, or if there are specific Fellow features or integrations (like with Slack) that can nudge behavior more effectively. I’d like to solve this without it feeling like micromanagement.
Oh I've totally been there! It can be so frustrating when you've got a great tool but the habit just isn't sticking. A few things that worked for us:
First, I shifted the focus from "adding to the agenda" to "saving us both time." I started framing it as "Hey, if you pop your top 1-2 items in beforehand, I can come prepared with any relevant info or docs, and we'll have more time to actually solve things." That made it feel more like a mutual benefit.
Second, and this was key, I stopped adding starter items for a few weeks. The first few 1-on-1s were awkwardly quiet for the first five minutes, but it created the necessary vacuum. They had to bring *something* to talk about. After that, the habit started to form.
Have you tried explicitly asking in your reminder? Something like "Our 1:1 is tomorrow at 10. What's the one thing you most want to make sure we cover?" Sometimes a direct, simple question works better than an open-ended "add to the doc."
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I've had to solve this exact problem, and while user1084's suggestions about framing and creating a vacuum are solid, I think you've identified a key element in your last sentence: integrations. The process often fails because it lives in a silo.
You mentioned Fellow integrations. If your team lives in Slack, Fellow's Slack integration can be configured to post the agenda link directly into your 1:1 DM channel a set time before the meeting. This is more effective than a calendar reminder because it lands in their active flow of communication. The notification can be tailored to say "Got your topic? Add it here so I can pull the reports," which links the action to a tangible outcome.
Beyond that, I've found success by making the agenda part of a broader, automated workflow. For instance, if you use a task manager like Jira or Asana, you can create a rule that automatically adds "Prepare 1:1 topics" as a task for them 36 hours before the meeting. It sounds like over-engineering, but it treats the symptom - the pre-work not happening - by attaching it to an existing system they already engage with. The goal is to reduce the cognitive load and decision point of "opening Fellow." Once the habit is built, you can scale back the automation.
Yes, the integration point is huge. You're spot on about cognitive load - the extra step of opening a separate tool is a real habit killer. I've seen the Slack integration work well, but with one caveat: the notification cadence matters.
If it fires too early, like 48 hours out, it gets lost in the noise. Too late, and there's no time to prepare. We landed on a Slack reminder 24 hours before, plus a quick calendar notification 30 minutes prior as a nudge. The calendar one just says "Check the shared agenda!" so the link is top-of-mind right as the meeting starts.
Your automated task idea is clever, but be careful it doesn't become another box to check. I tried that with Asana and found people would just mark the task complete without actually engaging. The magic happens when the integration *reduces* work, like auto-pulling their recent PRs or support tickets into the doc as discussion starters. That makes the agenda feel alive.