meeting-prep

name	meeting-prep
description	Prepare for a product management meeting, including stakeholder alignment meetings, roadmap reviews, planning sessions, or executive updates. Produces an agenda, pre-read materials, and a facilitation guide.
argument-hint	["meeting type","attendees","goal","context or background"]
allowed-tools	Read, Write

Meeting Preparation

Good meeting preparation is the difference between a meeting that produces decisions and one that produces follow-up meetings. The goal is to arrive with a clear desired outcome, the right context pre-distributed, and a facilitation plan that keeps discussion focused.

Meeting Types and Their Needs

Meeting type	Primary goal	Key preparation
Roadmap review	Alignment on priorities	Scoring rationale, capacity model, tradeoffs
Executive update	Decision or buy-in	1-pager, options with recommendations
Sprint planning	Scope agreement	Sized backlog, team capacity, dependency map
Stakeholder alignment	Reduce friction	Pre-read with your recommendation; anticipate objections
Incident post-mortem	Learning + prevention	Timeline, root cause, action items
Customer advisory board	Input gathering	Discussion guide, specific questions, JTBD framing
Product discovery	Problem validation	Research findings, hypotheses to test
OKR review	Progress + decisions	Scorecard, confidence update, proposed changes

Process

1. Define the desired outcome — what specific decision, alignment, or output should result from this meeting?
2. Identify attendees and their interests — who needs to be there? What does each person care about?
3. Write the agenda — time-boxed, with a clear purpose for each section.
4. Build the pre-read — share materials 24–48 hours before; good pre-reads make meetings 30% shorter.
5. Anticipate objections — what are the 3 most likely points of resistance? Prepare responses.
6. Plan the decision-making process — will you vote? Consult? The meeting facilitator decides?
7. Prepare transition moments — how will you move from discussion to decision?
8. Assign roles — facilitator, timekeeper, note-taker.
9. Prepare the parking lot — have a place to capture off-topic but important items.
10. Define follow-up format — who writes the summary? When? To whom?

Output Format

Meeting Brief (send 24–48 hours before)

# Meeting Brief: [Meeting Name]
**Date:** [Date, time, timezone]
**Duration:** [45 min / 60 min]
**Location / Link:** [Zoom / Room / Google Meet]
**Facilitator:** [Name]

---

## Purpose
[One sentence: What will we accomplish in this meeting?]
e.g., "Align on Q3 product roadmap priorities and resolve the SSO vs. analytics debate."

## Desired Outcome
By the end of this meeting, we will have:
- [ ] Agreed on the top 3 P1 initiatives for Q3
- [ ] Resolved the prioritization conflict between SSO and reporting features
- [ ] Identified any capacity risks for Q3

## Pre-Read (please review before the meeting)
- [Link to roadmap draft] — 5 min read
- [Link to Q2 metrics summary] — 3 min read
- [Link to capacity model] — 2 min read

**If you read nothing else:** [One sentence summary of the most important thing to know going in]
e.g., "Engineering capacity for Q3 is 15% lower than planned due to two backfills. This is the constraint driving the tradeoff."

---

## Agenda

| Time | Item | Owner | Goal |
|------|------|-------|------|
| 0:00–0:05 | Context and goals | PM | Align on purpose |
| 0:05–0:20 | Q2 results review | PM | Shared baseline |
| 0:20–0:35 | Q3 roadmap proposal | PM | Present and discuss |
| 0:35–0:50 | Tradeoff discussion: SSO vs. reporting | All | Resolve priority conflict |
| 0:50–0:58 | Decisions and owners | PM | Confirm alignment |
| 0:58–1:00 | Next steps | PM | Assign and close |

---

## Key Decisions Needed
1. **SSO vs. reporting analytics** — which goes into Q3? [PM recommendation: SSO, because it unblocks 8 enterprise deals]
2. **APAC launch scope** — full feature parity or MVP? [PM recommendation: MVP only]
3. **Tech debt sprint** — approve 2-week investment in Q3 to unblock H2 velocity?

## Background (for context only — not for discussion)
[Any context that participants need but that should not consume meeting time]

---

Facilitation Guide (for the meeting)

# Facilitation Guide: [Meeting Name]
**For the facilitator's use only**

---

## Opening (0:00–0:05)
"Thanks for reviewing the pre-read. Today's goal is to leave with three confirmed Q3 priorities and a decision on the SSO vs. reporting trade-off. I will be time-boxing each section. If we hit a dead-end, I will call it out and we will move it to async or a follow-up."

## Context Set (0:05–0:20)
Present these 3 data points only — do not re-explain the whole quarter:
1. Activation rate: 23% (target was 35%) — we missed
2. Enterprise deals blocked by SSO: 8 (potential: $800K ARR)
3. Engineering capacity: 80% of plan (two open reqs not yet backfilled)

**Transition:** "Given this context, here is my recommendation for Q3..."

## Recommendation Presentation (0:20–0:35)
Key message: "I am recommending SSO first, reporting second, with the tech debt sprint in sprint 1."
Prepare for three likely objections:

| Objection | Likely source | Response |
|-----------|--------------|---------|
| "We promised customers the reporting feature" | Sales lead | "We scoped it into Q4. There is no written commitment — can you send me the specific quote if there is one? Reporting is P1 in Q4." |
| "SSO takes too long; what about the quick wins?" | CTO | "The quick wins add up to L-size work; they do not move the enterprise ARR needle. SSO closes 8 deals in pipeline." |
| "Why is tech debt in Q3?" | CEO | "Without this investment, every Q4 project takes 40% longer. Here is the specific estimate from the engineering lead." |

## Decision Forcing (0:35–0:50)
If discussion goes in circles, use: "Let me propose a way to make progress. We have three options: [A, B, C]. I want to do a quick temperature check — thumbs up for what you could live with. We do not need unanimous enthusiasm, just no strong objections."

## Parking Lot
Capture but do not discuss:
- Items that come up that are important but not on today's agenda
- Assign a follow-up owner before moving on

## Close (0:50–1:00)
Explicitly confirm:
1. "We decided [X]" — say it out loud, confirm agreement
2. "The owner of [action] is [name] by [date]"
3. "I will send the meeting notes by [time]"

---

Meeting Notes Template (post-meeting)

# Meeting Notes: [Meeting Name]
**Date:** [Date]
**Attendees:** [Names]
**Facilitator / Notes:** [Name]

---

## Decisions Made
1. [Decision] — made by [who] — [rationale]
2. [Decision] — made by [who] — [rationale]

## Action Items
| Action | Owner | Due date |
|--------|-------|---------|
| [e.g., Write SSO PRD] | @pm-name | [Date] |
| [e.g., Confirm capacity with engineering] | @eng-lead | [Date] |
| [e.g., Send roadmap to sales team] | @pm-name | [Date] |

## Key Discussion Points
- [Summarize major discussion — not verbatim, just conclusions]
- [Note any significant dissent or concerns raised]

## Parking Lot (deferred topics)
- [Topic] — to be addressed in [forum / next meeting / async]

## Next Meeting
**Topic:** [Follow-up meeting topic if needed]
**Date:** [Date]
**Owner:** [Who is scheduling it]

Meeting Preparation by Type

Executive / Board Update

• Lead with the ask or recommendation in the first 60 seconds
• Prepare a 1-pager (not a slide deck for regular updates)
• "1 page memo → 15 minute discussion" is the right format for most exec updates
• Anticipate: "What is the risk?" "What does success look like?" "What do you need from me?"

Roadmap Review

• Share the scoring model, not just the final ranking — show your work
• Frame every roadmap as "this is my recommendation, here is the tradeoff"
• Come with a pre-decided answer; the meeting should validate, not discover
• If the meeting is going to surface new information that changes the roadmap, call it a discovery meeting, not a review

Conflict Resolution

• Send a 1-pager with your recommendation 24 hours before — do not spring it in the meeting
• In the meeting, start with areas of agreement before disagreement
• "What would need to be true for you to support option B?" is more useful than debating positions
• If no resolution: identify the question that needs more data and assign it

Sprint Planning

• Backlog should be groomed and sized before the meeting — sprint planning is not a sizing session
• Come with a capacity number from engineering; do not let sprint planning reveal it for the first time
• Prioritize the backlog before the meeting; sprint planning confirms, does not discover priority

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Anti-pattern	What it looks like	Fix
No desired outcome	"We are meeting to discuss Q3"	Define specifically: "We will decide on the top 3 priorities"
No pre-read	Context is built in the meeting	Send materials 24–48 hours before; use first 5 min to align, not to educate
Decision theater	Meeting "decides" but the HiPPO overrides	Acknowledge the HiPPO model explicitly; consider a separate alignment conversation
Open-ended agenda	60 minutes of "discussion"	Time-box every agenda item with a specific output
No note-taker	Meeting ends; decisions are remembered differently by each attendee	Assign a note-taker; send notes within 2 hours
Recurring meeting without purpose	"Our weekly sync" with no agenda	Every recurrence should have an explicit goal or be canceled

Rules

• Define the desired outcome before building the agenda — if you do not know what "done" looks like, the meeting will not produce it.
• Send a pre-read — good pre-reads cut meeting time by 30% and improve decision quality.
• Come with a recommendation — "should we do A or B?" is a lazy question; "I recommend A because X, here is my reasoning" starts a useful conversation.
• Time-box everything — open-ended discussion expands to fill available time.
• Assign one note-taker — shared notes are often no notes.
• Confirm decisions out loud — at the end of each decision point, state the conclusion explicitly.
• Send notes within 2 hours — decisions half-remembered by attendees become the next meeting's debate.
• Parking lot is mandatory — without it, important tangents derail the agenda.
• Fewer attendees, better decisions — invite only people who contribute to the specific decisions being made.
• End with owners and dates — an action without an owner and a due date will not happen.