150 check-in questions for team meetings, retros and one-on-ones
Scale
Weather report: are you sunny, partly cloudy, foggy, rainy or stormy today?
Check-in questions answer one thing before a meeting starts: how is everyone arriving? A good one takes a few seconds to answer, tells you who is stretched and who has room, and gets every voice into the meeting before the agenda does. Below are 150 of them, sorted by purpose, with a round you can run in five minutes. For warm-ups that are less about mood and more about getting to know each other, see our morning meeting questions.
How to run a 5-minute check-in round
Seven steps. The first five take five minutes; the last two are what make people answer honestly next time.
- Pick one question. One per meeting. Put it in the invite or the chat a minute early so nobody is caught cold.
- Say the size of the answer. One word, or one sentence. Without a limit, the first answer runs three minutes and the round is over.
- Go first. Your answer sets the length and the honesty. If you say "fine", so will everyone else.
- Name the order. A call has no circle. Read down the participant list, or let each person pick who goes next.
- Allow a pass. "Pass" is a complete answer. People who can skip today will join in tomorrow.
- Thank, don't fix. A check-in is for hearing, not solving. Say thanks, note what needs a follow-up and keep moving.
- Close the loop in private. Anyone who said red, stormy or running low gets a message from you that day, not a question in front of the group.
A script you can read out
“Before the agenda, a one-minute check-in. Traffic light: is your workload green, yellow or red this week? One word each, and pass is fine. I'll start: yellow. I'll go down the participant list from here.”
How long a check-in takes
- One word: about 5 seconds a person. Twelve people in a minute.
- A scale (weather, battery, traffic light): about 10 seconds a person, or everyone at once in the chat.
- One sentence: about 30 seconds a person. Eight people in four to five minutes.
- More than ten people: don't go around the room. Use one of the big-group formats below.
150 check-in questions for meetings, by purpose
Eight groups. Start with a word or a scale, and bring in the others as the team gets used to checking in.
15 one-word check-in questions
Five seconds a person. The right size for a daily standup or a call with a dozen people.
- 1.In one word, how are you arriving at this meeting?
- 2.What's one word for your energy right now?
- 3.What's one word for your workload this week?
- 4.What's one word you want to describe this meeting when it's over?
- 5.What's one word for what you need today?
- 6.In one word, what's on your mind?
- 7.What's one word for your inbox right now?
- 8.What's one word for how last week ended?
- 9.What's one word your calendar would use to describe today?
- 10.What's one word for the mood of the team this week?
- 11.What's one word for what you're bringing to this meeting?
- 12.What's one word for your focus today?
- 13.In one word, how did yesterday go?
- 14.What's one word for the project you're in the middle of?
- 15.What's one word for this quarter so far?
20 energy and mood scale check-ins
A scale lets people be honest without explaining. Green, sunny or full means fine. Yellow, cloudy or half means keep an eye on it. Red, stormy or empty means you follow up privately after the meeting, not in it.
- 16.Weather report: are you sunny, partly cloudy, foggy, rainy or stormy today?
- 17.Battery level: what percent are you charged right now?
- 18.Traffic light: is your workload green, yellow or red this week?
- 19.From 1 to 5, how clear are your priorities today?
- 20.Fist to five: how confident are you that we'll hit this week's goal?
- 21.Thumbs up, sideways or down: how's your week going?
- 22.Calendar check: is today wide open, nicely full or double-booked?
- 23.Wi-Fi bars: how many bars of focus do you have today, out of five?
- 24.Volume dial: from 1 to 10, how loud is your to-do list?
- 25.Speedometer: are you cruising, speeding or stuck in traffic?
- 26.Elevator: is your mood going up, going down or stuck between floors?
- 27.Roller coaster: are you climbing, at the top, dropping or coasting?
- 28.Mental tabs: how many things are you juggling right now, as a number?
- 29.Altitude: are you at 30,000 feet, 10,000 feet or on the ground in the details today?
- 30.Loading bar: what percent done is your biggest task?
- 31.Emoji check: which single emoji matches your energy right now?
- 32.From 1 to 10, how ready do you feel for this meeting?
- 33.Spice level: is your week mild, medium or extra hot?
- 34.Power mode: are you in sleep mode, on standby or fully on?
- 35.Pace check: is this week a walk, a jog or a sprint?
25 fun check-in questions
Still a check-in: the answer tells you how someone is doing, it just arrives as a cartoon character or a snack.
- 36.What animal are you today, and why?
- 37.If your mood were a breakfast food, what would it be?
- 38.What color is your day so far?
- 39.Which household object matches your energy today?
- 40.What's the headline of your week so far?
- 41.Which punctuation mark is your day: a period, a question mark or an exclamation point?
- 42.Which cartoon character are you today?
- 43.How tall is your to-do list: molehill, hill or mountain?
- 44.What sound effect sums up your day so far?
- 45.If your brain had browser tabs, which one is playing music?
- 46.What would your loading screen say right now?
- 47.Which snack best represents your week?
- 48.If you were a road sign today, which one would you be?
- 49.What kind of shoes is today: slippers, sneakers or hiking boots?
- 50.What would your out-of-office say if it told the truth today?
- 51.Which board game is your week most like?
- 52.What's one thing in the room with you that matches your mood?
- 53.Is your energy an espresso, an herbal tea or lukewarm water?
- 54.What's the best thing you've eaten since we last met?
- 55.What would your pet, your plant or your coffee mug say about your morning?
- 56.What's your background noise right now?
- 57.What's one small thing you're weirdly excited about?
- 58.If you could add one item to today's agenda just for fun, what would it be?
- 59.What's the last thing you crossed off your list, and how good did it feel?
- 60.What's on your desk that deserves a shout-out today?
Want a question that isn't about work at all? Draw one from our random question generator, or post a question of the day in your team channel.
20 focus and priority check-in questions
For meetings where the check-in should do some work. Each one surfaces a risk, a blocker or a decision.
- 61.What's the one thing you must finish before you log off today?
- 62.What are you saying no to this week so you can focus?
- 63.What decision are you waiting on?
- 64.Where could you use a second pair of eyes?
- 65.What's the riskiest thing on your list this week?
- 66.What did you plan for yesterday that didn't happen, and why?
- 67.What will you do first after this meeting?
- 68.What's taking longer than you expected?
- 69.What can you hand off this week, and to whom?
- 70.What does "done" look like for you by Friday?
- 71.What's the smallest next step on your biggest project?
- 72.What are you unsure about that someone here might know?
- 73.What's competing for your attention right now?
- 74.Which deadline is closest, and are you on track?
- 75.If you only got two hours of real work today, what would you spend them on?
- 76.What did you finish recently that the team should know about?
- 77.What's the most important conversation you need to have this week?
- 78.What do you need from this group before you can move forward?
- 79.What are you choosing not to worry about until next week?
- 80.What's your plan B if today goes sideways?
15 wellbeing check-in questions
Light and always optional. You're a manager, not a therapist: listen, say thanks and follow up one-on-one. If someone needs more than a colleague can give, point them to HR or your employee assistance program.
- 81.What's one thing you did for yourself this week?
- 82.What's been the best five minutes of your day so far?
- 83.What helps you switch off at the end of the day?
- 84.When did you last take a real lunch break?
- 85.What's giving you energy lately?
- 86.What's draining your energy lately?
- 87.What's one thing that would make this week feel lighter?
- 88.How are you, really, in one sentence?
- 89.What does a good break look like for you today?
- 90.What are you doing this week that has nothing to do with work?
- 91.What's a boundary that's working well for you right now?
- 92.Is there anything you'd like the team to know about your week, no details needed?
- 93.What would help most right now: advice, a hand or someone to listen?
- 94.What's your plan to wind down tonight?
- 95.What would you like more time for this month?
15 check-in questions for remote teams
On a call you can't see who looks tired or who just ran in from another meeting. These ask about what the camera hides.
- 96.Where are you working from today?
- 97.What's the last thing you did before joining this call?
- 98.What can you see from the nearest window?
- 99.Is your home office too hot, too cold or just right today?
- 100.Have you been outside yet today?
- 101.What's the best thing about your workspace this week?
- 102.What's one thing that would make remote work easier for you this month?
- 103.How many video calls is this for you today?
- 104.What time is it where you are?
- 105.What's your camera hiding just out of frame?
- 106.When did you last stand up, and should we all do it now?
- 107.What's one message you were glad to get this week?
- 108.What's for lunch today, or what was it?
- 109.What's the first thing you'll do when you close your laptop today?
- 110.What happened in your day that a camera can't show us?
20 Monday and Friday check-in questions
Ten to open the week and ten to close it. Monday looks ahead; Friday looks back and lets go.
Monday
- 111.What's one thing from the weekend you'd happily do again?
- 112.If this week goes well, what will we be celebrating on Friday?
- 113.What was the first thing you tackled this morning?
- 114.What part of this week are you most curious about?
- 115.How long did it take you to feel back at work this morning?
- 116.What's your one goal for today, just today?
- 117.What did you happily not think about all weekend?
- 118.Who are you counting on this week, and for what?
- 119.What do you want to protect time for this week?
- 120.What's one thing that would make this a good Monday?
Friday
- 121.What are you proud of from this week?
- 122.What took more energy than you expected this week?
- 123.What's one thing you're glad is finished?
- 124.Who made your week easier?
- 125.What's still open that you're parking until Monday?
- 126.What was the most useful conversation you had this week?
- 127.What made you laugh this week?
- 128.What would you repeat next week exactly as it went?
- 129.From "ready for more" to "ready for the couch", where are you?
- 130.What's your sign-off ritual on a Friday?
20 check-in questions for retros and one-on-ones
Ten to open a retrospective before the sticky notes come out, and ten for a manager to ask in a one-on-one.
Retros
- 131.In one word, how did this sprint or project feel?
- 132.Mad, sad or glad: which one fits this sprint for you?
- 133.If this project were a road trip, where did we get a flat tire?
- 134.What should we keep doing exactly as we did?
- 135.What surprised you most about this project?
- 136.What was the high point for you?
- 137.Rose, bud, thorn: what went well, what has promise and what was hard?
- 138.What did we learn that we didn't expect to?
- 139.What slowed us down that we could fix by next time?
- 140.If we started over tomorrow, what would you do first?
One-on-ones
- 141.What's been the best and the hardest part of your week?
- 142.What's going better than it was a month ago?
- 143.What's one thing I could do differently to help you?
- 144.What part of your work do you want more of?
- 145.What part of your work do you want less of?
- 146.Is anything unclear about priorities right now?
- 147.What have you done lately that I might have missed?
- 148.How's your workload: too light, about right or too heavy?
- 149.What would you like to learn or try in the next few months?
- 150.What should we make sure to talk about today?
Check-in formats for big groups
Going around the room stops working at about ten people. These five formats check in fifty people as fast as five.
- Chat waterfall. Everyone types an answer and waits. On "three, two, one, send", every answer lands at once. Nobody copies the first reply, and even a very large call checks in within a minute.
- Emoji scale. Ask a scale question and have people react or type a number in the chat. Read the room out loud: "mostly green, three yellows."
- One-question poll. If your meeting tool has polls, run one. You get a count, and answers can stay anonymous, which helps with workload and energy questions.
- Pairs. Two minutes in pairs or breakout rooms of two, one question, then back. Everyone speaks, and nobody speaks in front of forty people.
- Fist to five. In a room, ask for a show of fingers from zero to five. Scan, say what you see and move on.
Have five minutes left over? Our 5-minute team building activities pick up where a check-in stops.
What not to ask in a check-in
A check-in works only if an honest answer is safe. Six things break that.
- Health, family plans, money, religion or politics. None of it is the team's business, and nobody should have to dodge it in front of a manager.
- "Why?" after a low score. Asking someone to explain a red in front of the group teaches everyone to say green next time.
- Questions with a right answer. "Is everyone excited about the launch?" is a pep talk, not a check-in.
- Digging for pain. "What's the hardest thing in your life right now?" belongs with a friend or a professional, not a standup.
- The same question every week. People answer on autopilot by week three. Rotate between a word, a scale and a fun one.
- Anything you wouldn't answer first. If you'd hesitate, so will they.
When the team needs more than a check-in
A check-in tells you how the team is doing. It doesn't change it. If the answers keep coming back tired, give people an hour that isn't work: a live instructor leads a stress reset, a guided meditation or another virtual wellness event on Zoom (Teams, Google Meet or Webex on request). Book about 2 weeks ahead, or get a free quote.
Two hosted wellness sessions, with today’s prices.
