I stumbled upon a high-value communication hack for 1:1s
I've been in software engineering management for about 8 years, and throughout that time, I've prided myself on taking good notes during meetings. It was a skill I routinely relied on in my previous career as a journalist, and I carried the practice with me into the software engineering world.
But within the past two years, I've discovered three ways to improve the value those notes provide for both myself and the other person on the call. I didn't intentionally set out to boost the value of my note-taking; I just happened to notice that what I was doing was working really well and was appreciated by the people with whom I met.
Make them visible. First, I share my screen during the call so the other person can see the notes I'm taking as I'm writing them. This lets them see how I'm translating our conversation into raw notes, and ideally they're able to collaborate with me in the process by correcting anything I've captured incorrectly (or failed to capture).
Make them accessible. If I'm using a tool like Lattice that has a shared notes field, the other person on the call will automatically have access to the notes afterward. If not, I make it a practice to send the notes to them by some other means, such as through Slack or email. That way, both of us have a copy we can refer back to whenever needed. In recurring 1:1s, I'll sometimes start by pulling up our shared notes from our previous meeting, and it's a great way to refresh our memories and make sure we haven't let anything slip through the cracks.
