Unscheduled One-on-Ones

Open-door availability instead of scheduled recurring meetings—be there when people actually need you

Farhan Thawar
How Shopify builds a high-intensity culture

Unscheduled One-on-Ones

"I had all these directors. I did two things famously. One, I had a lot of direct reports, and two, I did not do any scheduled one-on-ones because you can't have 120 direct reports and do scheduled one-on-ones because you're never doing anything but one-on-ones." - Farhan Thawar

What It Is

Instead of scheduling recurring one-on-ones with every direct report, make yourself consistently available for unscheduled conversations. This means being physically or virtually present, easily accessible, and responsive when people need you—rather than rationing your time into 30-minute calendar blocks.

Farhan famously managed 120 direct reports at XtremeLabs with zero scheduled one-on-ones. The key insight: looking back on three years of weekly one-on-ones at a previous company, how many were actually useful? The unscheduled ones—when you knocked on your manager's door with a real problem—those were the ones that mattered.

How It Works

Why Scheduled One-on-Ones Often Fail:

  • Many happen regardless of whether there's something important to discuss
  • Create artificial urgency to "have something to talk about"
  • Can become status updates that could be async
  • Time-consuming at scale (120 × 30 min = 60 hours/week)

Why Unscheduled Works:

  • Conversations happen when there's actual need
  • Problems get solved in real-time instead of waiting for the next slot
  • Removes the "agenda item" pressure
  • Scales to large teams

The Prerequisites:

  • You must be consistently available (not in back-to-back meetings)
  • You need good systems for other manager functions (what to work on, feedback, etc.)
  • You need presence—physical desk in the center of the floor, or virtual equivalent

How to Apply It

  1. Clear your calendar - If you're in meetings all day, you can't be available. Not doing scheduled one-on-ones frees up time to be present.

  2. Create physical/virtual presence - Farhan had a circular desk in the middle of the engineering floor. In remote settings, have open Slack hours or be responsive.

  3. Systemize other manager functions - Use product backlogs, demos, and team processes to answer "what should I work on?" and "is my work good?" without needing a one-on-one.

  4. Pair programming as alternative - Two people working together naturally surfaces issues. The pairing becomes the conversation.

  5. Watch for signals - In pair programming, you can see across the room if something isn't working (one person leaning back). Walk over and ask.

What You Lose (And How to Replace It)

One-on-One Function Alternative System
What should I work on? Product backlog, prioritization process
Is my work good? Weekly demos, peer feedback, pair reviews
Am I on track for promotion? Explicit career frameworks, periodic career conversations
I'm stuck on something Unscheduled one-on-ones (this framework)
Personal check-ins Team rituals, manager presence

When This Breaks

At 400 people, Farhan acknowledged the 120-direct-reports model wouldn't scale. The solution wasn't to add scheduled one-on-ones back—it was to add a layer of directors, each with 40 direct reports, using the same approach. Still flat, still unscheduled, but with additional people sharing the availability load.

Source

  • Guest: Farhan Thawar
  • Episode: "How Shopify builds a high-intensity culture"
  • Key Discussion: (01:16:05 - 01:19:45) - 120 direct reports with zero scheduled one-on-ones
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

Related Frameworks

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