1:1 best practices

Learn to use 1:1s for more effective coaching.

Medallia Agent Connect 1:1s are built for efficiency and standardization, bringing all the tools you need to effectively coach team members into one user interface. This best-practices guide contains quick tips to help you get the most out of your coaching sessions.

Choose an effective session title

The session title should indicate the type of conversation that is happening. Titles like "Weekly check-in" or "goal-setting conversation" can help coaches and coachees to quickly identify the purpose of a session.

image of the session title field

Add useful notes

The notes field allows the coach and coachee to add their own topics of conversation prior to the 1:1, and additional notes and summaries during or after the discussion. This could include high-level metrics and goals, opportunities to improve, or career-level discussions. These notes will be shared with the other participant and can be referenced later.

Tip: Use hyperlinks, emojis, and other formatting options to keep these notes productive and organized.
image of the my notes field

Personal notes are visible only to you. Use this to keep track of sensitive topics you want to discuss or personal action items.

image of the personal notes field

Use coaching templates to standardize 1:1s

Coaches can apply pre-configured templates to the Agenda field rather than creating new notes for each session. This helps to standardize 1:1 sessions by using the same outline and topics for all coachees or using standard outlines for specific scenarios.

To learn how to create and use coaching templates, see 1:1s

Use AI features to help with planning

AI features can help you to save time and gain new insights into the coaching process by using data from previous sessions to provide guidance for building new ones. Two features are available: the Previous Session Summary module and the Suggested Topics slide-out panel.

Previous session summary

Review the AI-generated summary of the previous coaching session to identify potential followup topics. This should not prevent you from reviewing previous session details on your own. Instead, it serves as quick and helpful guide when preparing a new session.

example session summary

To help us refine this feature, you can click the thumbs up or down icons to let us know when a summary was particularly accurate or not.

Suggested topics

Click the Help Me Coach button in the Agenda section to view a list of topics that may be relevant to the current session, based on what our LLMs have learned from analyzing previous sessions with the coachee. Remember that these are only suggestions meant to guide your planning process rather than control it. For example, you may find that several of the suggested topics are useful, while others may not apply to your goals for the session.

example of suggested topics

Add metrics and saved items to the session

Use the Metrics, Saved QA Reviews, and Saved Feedback modules to assist in your conversations by providing specific, targeted examples of the session topics.

example items added to an agenda

Add metrics

Including metrics helps team members to keep track of their performance. Click Add to Agenda beneath any metric to add it as a point for discussion.

Tip: We recommend either adding all of your metrics to discuss a full scorecard or picking one metric to focus on each session.

Add saved items

When reviewing customer feedback or QA sessions, you will see an option to save the item for discussion in your next 1:1. Click View QA Reviews or View Feedback to review these saved items during the session or while preparing for the meeting.

You can save customer feedback, completed QA Reviews, and metric snapshots with the Save or Add to 1:1 buttons found on the Stream and QA reviews.

Tip:

  • Remember to review items that team members have saved and add them to the 1:1 agenda for discussion.

  • We recommend prioritizing positive recognition over negative feedback to support improvement and success.

Give Kudos

Kudos are your opportunity to shout out wins and accomplishments while expressing gratitude for team members' hard work. Use this feature to celebrate your teams' successes, expertise, effort, and commitment to company values.

example kudos notification

Team members have the opportunity to celebrate their successes from their Stream and Trends pages. Use emojis in your notes & actions to make 1:1s more fun!

Assign action items

Use action items to move your team members closer to their goals. A good action is direct, succinct and attainable. These might include training material to review or specific skills and company policies the coachee should put into practice.

Team members will be able to mark actions complete when achieved, providing them with a sense of accomplishment and accountability.

Example action items

Share sessions at several points

To create the most engaging and effective coaching experience, we recommend sharing 1:1 details before and after the coaching session.

  • Prior to the 1:1, the coach should build the agenda and share the session with the coachee to help prepare for the discussion. To share a new session, click Share Agenda at the bottom of the session page.

  • During the 1:1, coaches should take notes, add action items, and continue to update the 1:1 on the session page.

  • After the 1:1, with new notes and action items in place, coaches should resend the session recap email so that the coachee has all of the information available. Click Resend Recap at the bottom of the session page to send a post-session recap to the coachee.