Tag-ups

A formula for using "group 1-on-1s" to combat ad-hoc meetings.

Tag-ups were probably our most unique category of meetings at YouTube.

The genesis of tag-ups came from two primary observations:

Playing “telephone” through 1-on-1s: Before creating Tag-ups, we found that many project updates and discussions would happen in 1-on-1s. I would talk to the PM lead on Monday and we would brainstorm an option for a launch, and then later the same day, have a similar discussion with the Eng lead for the same team. They would get together and compare notes, and no matter how close the feedback seemed to me, they would see differences and end up relaying a third message to the rest of their team. This game of “telephone” was not only an inefficient use of time, it was also a poor way to drive alignment.

Compensating with ad-hoc meetings: When this game of telephone would happen, the inevitable response was “ok, let’s just get everyone involved together for a quick sync”. This fell into the trap of ad-hoc meetings which is well described in

Weekly cadence⁠

. These meetings were almost always hard to schedule in a timely way, and when they did convene, they lacked the structure and rituals of a standing forum.

So we invented a new meeting type we call Tag-ups. The simplest description of these meetings were “Group 1-on-1s”. This gradually became a key coordination point for us, and for me, they took the largest section of my time [

11

⁠

hours a week,

40%

⁠

of my scheduled time].

The formats for tag-ups varied a bit, but the core ones all followed a similar format. If you want to re-use this technique, click this button to

copy this doc

⁠

and make it yours.

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Tag-up name: [name of Focus Area, Big Rock, etc]

Relevant links: [insert links to standing docs and writeups for the area]

June 9, 2012

People Updates

[any new additions or departures from their team, any reorganizations / reassignments, and any emerging people issues]

Launches and decisions

[outline any important decisions and recent launches]

Metrics

[usually an embedded chart from the relevant dashboards]

Discussion topics

[topics the team would like to walk through]

June 2, 2012

People Updates

[any new additions or departures from their team, any reorganizations / reassignments, and any emerging people issues]

Launches and decisions

[outline any important decisions and recent launches]

Metrics

[usually an embedded chart from the relevant dashboards]

Discussion topics

[topics the team would like to walk through]

[Template for next meeting]

People Updates

[any new additions or departures from their team, any reorganizations / reassignments, and any emerging people issues]

Launches and decisions

[outline any important decisions and recent launches]

Metrics

[usually an embedded chart from the relevant dashboards]

Discussion topics

[topics the team would like to walk through]

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