50 Check-In Questions for Team Meetings That Get Real Answers

“How’s everyone doing?” gets fifteen people saying “good” and one person saying “busy.” That is a formality, not a check-in. Good check-in questions for team meetings have a real answer, take one sentence, and tell you something about the person you didn’t know at the start of the call.

A check-in is also the smallest piece of communication training you can run. In business improv training, the first skill is listening to what someone actually said, not waiting for your turn. A good check-in makes every person speak up once and makes everyone else hear them. Here are 50 questions sorted by meeting type and mood, and a way to run them with 15 people in under three minutes.

How to Run a Check-In in Under Three Minutes

Post the question in chat before you say it. Nobody asks you to repeat it, and late joiners catch up without interrupting.

Set the order. Call the first name, then let each person pick who goes next. Waiting for volunteers is where the time goes, and passing by name keeps everyone listening.

One sentence each. Fifteen people at ten seconds each is two and a half minutes. Anyone who starts a story gets a friendly “save it for after.”

Use chat for anything over 20 people. Everyone types at once, you read three answers aloud, done in 90 seconds.

Answer first yourself. Your answer sets the length and the honesty level. Give a real one-sentence answer and the room will match it.

The Communication Skills a Check-In Trains

• Speaking up: Everyone talks once, early, before the meeting’s loudest voices take over. People who have already spoken are far more likely to speak again.
• Listening: When each person picks who goes next, everyone has to stay alert. Ask the next speaker to name one word from the previous answer before giving theirs if you want to push it further.
• Reading the room: The answers tell you who is stretched, who is stuck, and who has energy to spare, before you assign anything.
• Saying it briefly: The one-sentence rule is practice for every status update that runs too long.

Check-In Questions for Monday Standups

1. What is the one thing you need to finish by Wednesday?
2. What did you do this weekend that had nothing to do with a screen?
3. What is going to be the hardest part of your week?
4. Who do you need something from this week that you haven’t asked yet?
5. What is your energy level, one to ten, no explanation?
6. What is one thing you’re looking forward to this week outside work?
7. What did you leave unfinished on Friday that is still bugging you?
8. What is one small thing that would make this week easier?
9. What was the first thing you ate this morning?
10. If this week were a weather forecast, what is it?
11. What did you learn last week that you’re still thinking about?
12. Which meeting on your calendar this week could be an email?

Check-In Questions for Retros

13. What went better than you expected this sprint?
14. What would you do differently if we started over?
15. Who helped you this sprint in a way nobody saw?
16. What was the most frustrating fifteen minutes of the last two weeks?
17. What is one process we follow that you don’t understand the reason for?
18. What did you almost say in a meeting and didn’t?
19. What is one thing we should stop doing?
20. On a scale of one to five, how sustainable was the pace?
21. What mistake did you make that turned out to be useful?
22. What do you want more of next sprint?

Check-In Questions for One-on-Ones

23. What is taking up more of your head than it should right now?
24. What part of your job would you hand off tomorrow if you could?
25. What have you been proud of lately that nobody mentioned?
26. What do you want to be doing more of a year from now?
27. Is there anything I’m doing that makes your job harder?
28. What is one thing you’d like feedback on?
29. Who on the team do you wish you worked with more?
30. What are you avoiding?
31. What did you do outside work recently that you’d recommend?
32. What decision are you waiting on from me?

Check-In Questions for All-Hands

33. Type one word for how this quarter felt.
34. What did another team do this quarter that made your work easier?
35. What is the best thing you ate this month?
36. Where are you joining from, and what is the weather doing there?
37. What would you ask leadership if it were anonymous? Collect these by form.
38. What tool or shortcut do you use that most people here don’t know about?
39. What customer moment from this quarter is worth repeating?
40. Thumbs up, sideways, or down for how the week is going.

Check-In Questions by Mood

Some days the mood matters more than the meeting type. These work when you want a fun check-in without planning anything.

Light.

41. What is your most irrational food opinion?
42. What is the last thing you searched for that wasn’t for work?
43. What would your pet say about your work habits?
44. What small thing made you laugh this week?

Reflective.

45. What did you change your mind about this year?
46. What are you carrying into this meeting that isn’t about this meeting?
47. What would make today a good day?

Quick.

48. Coffee or tea, and how many so far?
49. One word for right now.
50. Thumbs up if you slept enough last night.

What to Skip

Questions that split the room by money, politics, religion, or family. “What’s your dream vacation?” is fine. “How was your kid’s recital?” only works if everyone has a kid. Keep to things everyone on the call can answer in one sentence without deciding how much to share.

Where to Start

Put one standup question in next Monday’s invite and answer it first yourself. Rotate who picks the question after the first month. If the team likes it, the longer list of icebreaker questions for work and the get-to-know-you questions for work cover the days you want more than a check-in, and the 5-minute team building activities list covers the slot when a question isn’t enough.

When the check-ins go well enough that people want a real hour together, the Virtual Office Shenanigans Game is live business improv training on Zoom: 60 minutes for up to 50 people, hosted by Scott Topper, who trained at The Groundlings. Your team practices the same listening and speaking-up skills a good check-in starts, through improv games like Whoosh Bang Pow, with nothing for you to prepare.