AI Meeting Notes for 1:1 Meetings and Check-ins
Last updated: February 13, 2026
One-on-one meetings are where trust is built, feedback is delivered, and career growth happens. But they're often poorly documented, if at all. Menutes captures 1:1 conversations with speaker identification and generates private summaries of feedback given, commitments made, and action items agreed upon.
Common challenges
- 1:1 notes are often never written, losing valuable coaching moments and agreed actions
- Managers with 5-8 direct reports struggle to remember specific discussions across weekly 1:1s
- Career development conversations lack documentation to track progress over months
- Performance review preparation takes hours because there's no record of feedback given throughout the year
- Action items from 1:1s are forgotten by the next meeting
Why should 1:1 meetings be documented?
One-on-one meetings between managers and direct reports are among the most valuable meetings in any organization. They're where feedback flows, blockers get escalated, career development is discussed, and trust is built. Yet they're also among the least documented meetings.
The cost of this documentation gap compounds over time. A manager gives feedback in a 1:1 that the report doesn't act on, because neither wrote it down. Career development goals are discussed in January and forgotten by March. Performance reviews become exercises in recency bias because there's no record of 10 months of coaching.
Menutes creates a private, searchable record of every 1:1. Both the manager and report can reference exactly what was discussed, what feedback was given, and what was committed to. This transforms 1:1s from informal chats into documented coaching sessions.
How does Menutes work for 1:1 meetings?
A typical 1:1 is 30-45 minutes between two people, often in a small meeting room or at a desk. This is the ideal scenario for Menutes: two clearly distinct speakers in a quiet environment.
The manager or report opens Menutes and starts recording. Speaker identification labels each person's contributions accurately, even from the first recording. The AI summary captures feedback given, action items for both parties, decisions made, and topics to follow up on.
For walking 1:1s (increasingly popular for wellness and creativity), the phone in a pocket or hand captures the conversation effectively. The AI handles outdoor ambient noise and the natural conversational style of walking meetings.
After the meeting, both parties can review the summary. The manager has a record for their coaching notes; the report has a clear list of action items and feedback received.
How do 1:1 transcripts help with performance reviews?
Performance reviews are dramatically better when managers have a full year of 1:1 records to draw from. Instead of relying on the last 4-6 weeks of memory (recency bias), managers can search through months of documented conversations.
With Menutes, a manager preparing a performance review can review: feedback given throughout the year (what was praised, what needed improvement), goals set and progress discussed, challenges the report faced and how they responded, skills development and career growth conversations.
This level of documentation is fair to the employee. Their contributions across the full review period are visible, not just recent events. It's also easier for the manager: preparation time drops from hours of trying to recall conversations to 20-30 minutes reviewing AI summaries.
For organizations that use calibration sessions (where managers compare employee performance), having documented 1:1 records makes advocacy more evidence-based and defensible.
What about privacy in 1:1 conversations?
1:1 meetings often cover sensitive topics: performance concerns, compensation discussions, personal challenges, and career aspirations. Privacy is paramount.
Menutes stores recordings with encryption and EU data hosting. On the Team plan, access controls ensure that only the meeting participants can view recordings. There's no organization-wide visibility into individual 1:1 recordings unless explicitly shared.
Both parties should agree to recording. In practice, most manager-report pairs find that recording improves their 1:1s, as the documentation benefit outweighs any initial hesitation. Starting with a trial period of 2-3 recorded 1:1s helps both parties get comfortable.
For particularly sensitive topics (performance improvement plans, compensation negotiations), either party can pause or stop recording. Having the option to record most 1:1s while excluding specific segments provides the right balance.
Tips for better results
Record consistently
Make recording a default for all 1:1s. When it's routine, it stops feeling unusual. Both parties benefit from having a reliable record.
Review previous notes before each 1:1
Spend 2 minutes reviewing last week's summary before the meeting. Open with 'Last time we discussed...' to show continuity and follow-through.
Use notes for performance reviews
When review season arrives, search through your 1:1 summaries instead of trying to recall conversations from months ago. The transcript is the evidence.
Share summaries with your report
After each 1:1, send the AI summary to your report. This creates shared accountability for action items and ensures both parties have the same understanding of what was discussed.
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