1-1s for QA — what to prepare, templates, and how to talk about growth with your lead

A 1-1 is a tool for your career growth, not a status report for your lead. Most QAs run them as “tell me what you did last week” and over a year burn 50 meetings that could have been leverage for growth, promotion, project change, or solving problems before they get expensive.

This guide is what to prepare for a 1-1, the five types of conversation worth having, ready scripts for five painful topics (promotion, burnout, conflict, role change, boredom), and a doc template that keeps context across meetings.

Core mindset: this is your time

The most dangerous misunderstanding — “the lead needs the 1-1 to know what I’m doing”. Your lead already knows what you’re doing from tickets, PRs, standups and channels. A 1-1 is where you get what you can’t get anywhere else: feedback on your work through the company’s eyes, access to a level-up context, advocacy in promo committees, protection from political mess.

Rule: if the lead sets the agenda, you lose. If you set 80% of the agenda, the meeting works for you.

Preparation

Agenda 24 hours ahead. The day before the 1-1 you send 3-5 bullet points of what you want to discuss. It signals “I’m serious”, the lead has time to think, and the meeting stays on topic. Without an agenda a 1-1 becomes small talk.

1-1 doc. A shared document (Notion / Google Doc / Confluence) both of you write to. Structure: date, topics, action items with deadlines, parking lot for future meetings. The doc isn’t for reporting — it’s for continuity: so that in 3 months you remember you “discussed promotion in Q3” or “agreed I’d own the flaky-cleanup project”.

Don’t cancel a 1-1. If there’s nothing to discuss — that itself is a problem (either the work is boring, you’re burning out, or the lead isn’t useful). Reschedule, don’t cancel. The single most valuable signal in a 1-1 is what you said six months ago vs now.

Five types of 1-1 content

1. Status update — anti-pattern

“This week I closed tickets A, B, C, started D”. That’s already in Jira. Zero value in saying it. If the lead asks for status in a 1-1 — gently redirect: “All the details are on the Jira board / in the weekly. I wanted to bring up three things…”. A lead who wants the 1-1 as a status report is a weak lead; you’re not obliged to play along.

2. Career growth — once a quarter

Every three months, a dedicated 1-1 (or 30 minutes inside a regular one) just for career.

What to bring:

What I want in 6/12/24 months (role, project, skill, compensation).
What I’ve already done toward it.
What’s in my way / what opportunities I’m missing.
A concrete ask: “put me on crit projects”, “carve 20% of my time for automation”, “give me ownership of the flaky-cleanup project”.

Without this, 1-1s sit on “junior” for years.

3. Feedback — two-way

Once a month ask: “give me feedback on my work this past month — what’s working, what isn’t”. Not “everything ok?” (you’ll get “everything ok”), but specifically — three things working and one to improve.

And give feedback back. Not “all good” but specifically — what you need from your lead. Use Lara Hogan’s Feedback Equation — observation + impact + question. Example: “When you interrupt me in standup (observation), it’s hard for me to share blockers and I stop raising them (impact). Could we agree I finish my piece fully? (question)”.

4. Skip-level — every six months

With your manager’s manager. Either offered by your lead or asked for directly (politely). Why:

Get level-up context — what the company plans for the next six months, which projects matter.
Visibility — the skip-level often decides promotions. If they don’t know you, your odds are worse.
Sanity-check your lead’s view of you — sometimes lead says one thing, skip-level another.

Don’t use it to complain about your lead (unless it’s actual abuse). Skip-level is a career tool, not an escalation channel.

5. Difficult conversations

The most valuable 1-1s. If you haven’t had one in a month — either you have a perfect job (rare), or you’re not raising things.

Topics: promotion, conflict with a colleague, burnout, role unhappiness, team transfer, quitting. Scripts for each below.

Ready scripts for the painful topics

“I want a promotion”

“I want to discuss the path to Senior / the next grade. What do I have now, what’s missing, and which projects would close the gap? By the next 1-1 I want a clear list of 3-5 items we both agree on.”

This isn’t “give me a promo”, it’s “let’s align on criteria”. If the lead dodges specifics, that’s a signal. Go to skip-level or look for a new team.

“I’m burning out”

“Want to be honest — my energy’s been dropping the last [N] weeks. Symptoms: [bad sleep / procrastination / irritability / no drive]. Not a specific ticket — it’s systemic. I want to discuss what’s hardest in the work right now, what compromises are possible for 1-2 months, whether I need to take a week off.”

Don’t stay quiet and don’t grind through. Burnout isn’t weakness, it’s an operational problem the lead should solve (if they know how).

“I have a conflict with developer X”

“There’s tension between me and X. Specifically: [observation — what happened on standup / in a PR review / in chat]. It impacts the work like so [impact — I don’t report bugs in his code / I’m holding up PRs]. I want to discuss — should I talk to him directly, do I need you as a mediator, or is this an HR matter.”

Clear facts (not “he’s a bad person”), specific impact, a proposed resolution with options.

“My role is getting boring”

“For the last [N] months I’ve mostly done [routine X]. Growing in volume, not complexity. I want to discuss — what projects in the team would let me take a harder piece, or is a rotation to an adjacent area possible (perf / security / mobile).”

This isn’t “give me a new role”. It’s “I’m ready to take more, help me steer”.

“I want to move to another team / role”

“Want to discuss a move to [team Y / role Z]. Reasons: [growth opportunity / closer to my interests / I need skill X for the next grade]. Not leaving the company, an internal transfer. What needs to be closed in our team before the move, and how can you help with the conversation with [team Y]‘s lead.”

Openness works better than stealth. If the lead hears about your interest from someone else, the trust breaks.

1-1 doc template

One shared doc, structurally:

Header: names, cadence, quarterly goals.
Topics for next 1-1 (parking lot, both sides add between meetings).
Chronology — date-stamped sections top-down: date, topics discussed, action items with owners and deadlines.
Growth tracker — a separate page where every quarter you log: where I was, where I am, where I’m headed, what’s needed next.
Feedback log — what I gave the lead, what they gave me.

A useful reference structure — the GitLab 1-1 handbook — public, well-documented practices. And Will Larson on performance management — how the lead thinks about growth, so you understand the other side.

Anti-patterns

Status update instead of discussion. Lead dominates, you agree. → Send an agenda, lead the meeting.
Cancelling 1-1s “nothing to discuss”. → That’s the signal of a problem. Reschedule, don’t cancel. Talk 15 minutes about growth or mood at minimum.
Staying silent on issues. “I don’t want to upset them”. Your lead will be more upset when you suddenly quit.
Complaining without proposed options. “X annoys me” → nothing happens. “X annoys me, I think I need a transfer or a conversation via you” → process moves.
Not keeping a doc. Three months later you’ve forgotten you discussed promotion. So has the lead. The doc is the single source of truth.
Never giving upward feedback. “He’s my boss”. A lead without feedback doesn’t grow and eventually stops being useful to you.
Prepping 5 minutes before the meeting. It shows immediately. The lead notices you’re not investing and matches your effort.

Pre-1-1 checklist

24 hours ahead: 3-5 bullet agenda sent to the lead.
Doc reviewed — which action items from last time are done, which aren’t.
Prepared one career / growth question (even if the main agenda is the current project).
Prepared one piece of feedback for the lead.
If there’s a difficult topic — phrased as observation + impact + question.
During the meeting: capture action items and owners. After: update the doc.
Quarterly: career growth check — where I was, where I am, what’s needed next.

A 1-1 is the most undervalued career-growth tool in QA. 50 meetings a year, 30-60 minutes each — hundreds of hours of conversation with the person who influences your promo, projects and compensation. Using them as “tell me what you did” wastes the resource. Every 1-1 you either move or you don’t. A year later that’s the difference between +1 grade and leaving without an alternative.