60+ check-in questions for more engaging meetings

Five minutes till your team meeting and you feel ready. Your meeting agenda is on point, you’re using a great virtual meeting tool (like Vowel! 😎) and everything’s looking good.

But the one thing you’re forgetting? That the emotional state of your meeting attendees is important, too. Someone might be having a horrible day, after all. Or this is their fifth video meeting in a row with no breaks. 

There’s a great way to gauge the mood of your team members and build trust along the way, and that’s by using check-in questions – quick, simple prompts you pose to team members at the start of a meeting. 

They can help relax everyone present and break the ice before you get into the main business of the meeting. We’ve collected over 60 check-in questions for various kinds of meetings, from daily check-ins to one-on-ones.

Table of contents

• What makes good check-in questions for meetings?

• Check-in questions for one-on-one meetings

• Daily check-in questions

• Weekly check-in questions

• Team check-in questions

• Mindset check-in questions

• Icebreakers for check-ins 😉

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What makes good check-in questions for meetings?

Although virtual meetings have become an everyday occurrence for most remote teams, many people still feel anxious going into them and maintaining a work-life balance when they're at home all the time.  

And that’s why there are things like check-in meetings, team building questions, and icebreaker questions – they let everyone get comfortable with talking in front of others and they help with team building and employee engagement, all of which make remote work more pleasant.

So, what kind of check-in question accomplishes these goals?

Great check-in questions have these things in common:

• They’re open-ended questions that spark conversation

• They give managers a gauge of the whole team’s workload, stress level, project status, etc.

• They’re inclusive and mindful of the background of each team member

Check-in questions for one-on-one meetings

One-on-one meetings to check in with team members are a great way for managers to get the pulse of day-to-day activities and follow up on important issues. 

Here are the right check-in questions to ask so your one-on-ones are productive meetings (and a great asset in your project management toolset). 

1. What have you been working on since our last meeting?

2. What’s been taking up most of your time?

3. What’s the most important thing of your workday?

4. What obstacles or blockers are you facing in your work right now?

5. What are your goals between today’s meeting and the next meeting?

6. How is work at the company aligning with your career goals?

7. How can I better support your work?

8. What excites you about your current role?

9. How do you feel the team is working together/communicating?

10. Do you have time to get a break from work when you need to?

11. Do you feel supported by leadership?

When to use them: One-on-ones.

Daily check-in questions

Whether you're holding a quick check-in meeting or a more formal Scrum daily stand-up, these questions will help you figure out how your team’s feeling about their workloads and duties.

1. How are you feeling today?

2. What’s the biggest change in your workflow since yesterday?

3. How do you plan to prioritize your tasks for today?

4. How can other team members help you achieve your goals today?

5. What’s one thing you're most looking forward to today?

6. What are you most dreading today?

7. What can I do to help you today?

8. What’s your main challenge today?

9. What’s a nice thing you can do today for a coworker?

10. What’s your current workload like?

11. Do you have any urgent questions?

12. What tools or resources do you need to perform your tasks today?

13. Is there anything you’re struggling with today?

14. What has been your biggest win today?

15. What’s the most interesting thing that happened to you today?

When to use them: One-on-ones and team meetings.

Weekly check-in questions

For those of you who hold check-in meetings weekly, here are some nice questions you can ask at the beginning of a weekly check-in to understand how the past week was for team members and where your team stands in terms of workload and productivity for this week.

1. What are your main priorities this week?

2. What are you looking forward to working on this week?

3. Is there additional training or mentoring that would help you accomplish your current goals?

4. Have you been inspired by something or someone this week/the past few weeks and how?

5. Is there anything you’d like to change about your role this week and why?

6. Are there any tasks you have been procrastinating on for the past few weeks?

When to use them: One-on-ones and team meetings.

Team check-in questions

While the questions mentioned earlier were more focused on individuals and one-on-ones, the following questions are all about what’s going on at the team level. They work for any kind of team meeting.

1. What do you think we should discuss more as a team?

2. Do you have any suggestions for improving team productivity?

3. How can we divide tasks to be more efficient?

4. What do you feel the team needs help with?

5. What’s one example of something that went well for the team this week?

6. What’s one example of excellent teamwork from this week?

7. Where are the biggest bottlenecks or delays in the team’s workflow?

8. What systems, techniques, or tools could we use more often?

9. Do you feel like you can approach any team member?

10. What’s one thing you're good at that could help the rest of your teammates?

11. What could we do to prepare for unexpected events, such as a team member falling ill?

12. What’s one question you're glad a teammate asked because you had the same question?

13. Which task took us less time than expected?

14. How can we better show appreciation and respect to each other?

When to use them: Team meetings.

Mindset check-in questions

Managers generally know what’s on a team member’s plate day to day and week to week. But good managers also like to take a long-term perspective and the best way to do so is by asking questions probing the team member’s mindset. 

1. What times of the day do you feel least productive?

2. What times of the day do you feel most productive?

3. What tasks are you most comfortable doing?

4. What tasks and responsibilities take you outside of your comfort zone?

5. What parts of your job are you struggling with?

6. What tasks are you excelling at?

7. What’s your standard approach to a new challenge?

8. How many hours a day would you say you do deep work?

9. How do you achieve the best workflow?

10. What tools could help you focus better?

11. What’s your biggest or most common distraction?

12. How close do you feel to your coworkers?

13. How much bandwidth would you say you have to take on new tasks or responsibilities?

14. What can we do to help you achieve your professional goals (short-term and long-term)?

When to use them: One-on-ones.

Icebreakers for check-ins 🧊

Before we wrap up, here are some fun icebreaker questions best used at the beginning of a meeting to get everyone in the mood to talk and share.  These questions are a great team-building activity, too.

(Want even more icebreaker questions? You’ll find over a hundred right here 😉.)

1. What’s the most fun you’ve had at work recently?

2. What’s the most random idea you had at work this week?

3. What’s one random fact you’d like to learn about our company?

4. What’s one random fact you’d like to learn about your coworkers?

5. If you could shadow any other employee for a day, who would you choose and why?

When to use them: Team meetings.

Run better check-in meetings

Check-in questions are a quick and powerful way to help you take the pulse of your team while also building trust and getting everyone comfortable at the start of a meeting. Beyond that, Vowel can help you further upgrade your meeting culture. 

How?

With recurring meeting notes (so you can easily pull up what was discussed in the last meeting) and the ability to populate agendas and notes with questions so people can see them ahead of time, you’ll never feel unprepared for a check-in meeting.

To try it out for yourself, sign up now for free!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. What are check-in questions?

Check-in questions are a great way to connect with your team and get their feedback. You can gauge team morale, see what challenges they face, and figure out possible solutions. These questions also help with project management – by checking in with the team you can track their progress better. 

Q2. How much time should you spend on check-in questions during a meeting?

Try for a maximum of five minutes. Pick the check-in questions that people can answer quickly (like the ones on our list) so you don’t take too much time from other agenda talking points. Make sure to stay under 10 minutes – that’s when people will start getting antsy, especially if it’s a virtual meeting with many attendees.

Q3. How often should you ask check-in questions to remote employees?

You’ll get the most benefit out of check-in questions if you ask them every day. You can opt for a one-on-one check-in or a team meeting. One-on-ones will let you delve deeper but it might be too much time out of your day if you’re working with a big team.