Why Google Docs Are Ruining Your 1-on-1s

Published on April 11, 2026

Google Docs are excellent for writing technical specs and incident post-mortems. They are terrible for managing human beings.

Every engineering manager starts their career using a shared Google Doc for 1-on-1s. It feels lightweight. It requires zero setup.

Six months later, that document is a 40-page, unreadable wasteland where action items go to die. Here is why managing developers in a blank text editor is a massive unforced error, and how to fix it.

1. The Infinite Scroll Problem

A text document lacks opinions. By default, managers append the newest meeting agenda to the top of the file.

Over time, you build an infinite wall of text. If you need to reference a complex conversation you had about CI/CD tooling three months ago, you are forced to use Cmd + F and pray you remember the exact phrasing.

"Engineers do not read infinite-scrolling text docs. They skim them, and then they ignore them."

If your system relies on scrolling past last week's notes to get to this week's agenda, your system is broken.

2. Flat, Unstructured Data

In a text editor, all information looks exactly the same.

A critical blocker regarding database architecture looks identical to a casual note about a developer's weekend trip. There is no visual hierarchy.

More importantly, the data is trapped. If you want to know how many times "Technical Debt" or "Vague Product Specs" were brought up across your entire engineering team this quarter, you cannot track it. You just have a pile of paragraphs.

3. The Distraction Trap

When you open a shared Google Doc during a 1-on-1, both you and the developer are staring at a chaotic history of past grievances, completed tasks, and random thoughts.

It invites distraction. Your eyes wander to last week's unresolved bullet point while the engineer is actively trying to explain today's deployment failure. It is visually loud, making it incredibly difficult to remain present in the conversation.

4. Burying the Action Items

A 1-on-1 without a clear outcome is just a venting session. You must close the loop.

In a Google Doc, action items are usually just bullet points at the bottom of a block of text. When the meeting ends, you close the tab. By Tuesday, you have forgotten you promised to ping DevOps for database access.

The Fix: Operating Systems Over Notepads

You need structure. This is exactly why we built Accordia.

We completely abandoned the rich-text editor. Managing developers requires diagnosing friction, tracking complex technical blockers, and keeping them focused.

• Visual Agendas: Instead of typing paragraphs, you drag and drop interactive elements (like emoji Pulse Checks and Checkboxes) to extract structured data.
• Slideshow Mode: When the 1-on-1 begins, the history disappears. You focus on a single, distraction-free slide at a time.
• Isolated Execution: Action items are pulled out of the conversational noise into dedicated checklists that sync across your dashboards.

Stop typing paragraphs. Start having focused conversations.