Create a structured meeting agenda with pre-work and outcomes
beginnerclaude-haikuOperationsOps Managementmeetingsfacilitationproductivityplanningoperations
Use case
Use this prompt before any important meeting — team syncs, planning sessions, cross-functional reviews, or stakeholder updates. Good agendas are the single highest-leverage action you can take to make meetings shorter and more productive. Provide the meeting context and get a ready-to-share agenda.
The prompt
You are an expert facilitator and operations leader. Create a highly effective, structured meeting agenda for the meeting described below. **Meeting name:**{{meeting_name}}**Meeting type:**{{meeting_type}}(e.g., weekly sync, quarterly planning, retrospective, decision meeting, kickoff) **Duration:**{{duration}}minutes **Attendees and their roles:**{{attendees}}**Meeting objectives — what must be true at the end of this meeting:**{{objectives}}**Topics to cover:**{{topics}}**Decisions that need to be made (if any):**{{decisions_needed}}**Known tensions or issues to address:**{{known_tensions}}Produce a complete meeting agenda using this structure: ## Meeting Header - Meeting name, date/time placeholder, location/link placeholder - Meeting type and facilitator - Total duration ## Meeting Purpose (1–2 sentences) A crisp statement of why this meeting is happening and what success looks like. ## Pre-Work (sent 48 hours in advance) List specific pre-work tasks for each attendee role. Be concrete — "review the Q3 forecast spreadsheet (link)" not "come prepared." Each item should include: - Who: [role] - What: [specific action] - Time required: [estimate] ## Agenda Build a time-boxed agenda where each item includes: - Time block (start time relative to meeting start, e.g., 0:00–0:10) - Item name and type (e.g., [INFORM], [DISCUSS], [DECIDE], [BRAINSTORM], [CHECK-IN]) - Facilitator for this item - Discussion questions or prompts (2–3 specific questions to drive the conversation) - Expected output (what does done look like for this item) Rules for the agenda: - Reserve the first 5 minutes for check-in/context-setting - Reserve the last 10 minutes for action item capture and next steps - Time-box discussions — if an item is [DECIDE], put the decision criteria upfront - Flag any item that could easily consume the whole meeting as [WATCH TIME] - If there are known tensions, assign them a dedicated slot rather than letting them hijack another item ## Decision Log Template A table for capturing any decisions made during the meeting: | Decision | Owner | Rationale | Date | ## Action Items Template A table for capturing action items: | Action | Owner | Due Date | Dependencies | ## Parking Lot A section for items that come up but are out of scope for this meeting. ## Post-Meeting (within 24 hours) What should happen after the meeting: who sends notes, where are they stored, what triggers next steps.
Variables
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Example
Input
meeting_name: Q4 Roadmap Prioritization meeting_type: Decision meeting duration: 90 attendees: VP Product (facilitator), Head of Engineering, Head of Design, CFO, 2x Product Managers objectives: Leave the meeting with a finalized, ranked Q4 feature list that engineering can begin sprint planning against. Everyone aligned on what is NOT in Q4. topics: Review scoring from last week's prioritization exercise, debate top 5 contested features, confirm engineering capacity constraints, set Q4 release milestone dates decisions_needed: Which 8–10 features make the Q4 cut. Which 3 features explicitly move to Q1. Whether to pursue the enterprise SSO feature given the engineering cost estimate. known_tensions: Engineering believes the AI search feature is underscoped and will take 3x the estimated time. Design thinks the mobile redesign is a prerequisite for two other features and should be non-negotiable. CFO wants the billing upgrade to be the top priority for revenue reasons.
Output
# Q4 Roadmap Prioritization **Date:** [Date] | **Time:** [Time] | **Location:** [Zoom link] **Type:** Decision Meeting | **Facilitator:** VP Product | **Duration:** 90 minutes ## Meeting Purpose Make final, binding decisions on the Q4 feature set so engineering can begin sprint planning on Monday. Success = everyone leaves knowing exactly what is in Q4, what is not, and why. ## Pre-Work (send by Wednesday EOD) - **All attendees:** Review the prioritization scoring sheet (link) — 15 min - **Head of Engineering:** Prepare updated capacity model for Q4 (3-week sprint cadence, 12 engineers) — 30 min - **Product Managers:** Prepare a 2-slide brief for each of the 5 contested features: customer evidence, revenue impact estimate, engineering estimate — 45 min - **CFO:** Share the revenue model showing impact of billing upgrade at different launch dates — 20 min ## Agenda **0:00–0:05 | Check-in [CHECK-IN]** — Facilitator: VP Product - One word: how are you feeling about Q4 right now? - Output: Room calibrated; any blocking news surfaced **0:05–0:15 | Capacity & Constraints [INFORM]** — Facilitator: Head of Engineering - What is our actual engineering capacity for Q4 (story points)? - Which features have significant estimation uncertainty? - Output: Shared understanding of constraints before prioritization debate begins **0:15–0:25 | Mobile Redesign: Prerequisite or Standalone? [DECIDE]** — Facilitator: VP Product [WATCH TIME] - Decision: Is the mobile redesign a blocker for the onboarding and dashboard features, or can they ship independently? - Decision criteria: If >2 features require the redesign as a dependency, it gets prioritized; if not, it's optional. - Questions: (1) Which features technically depend on the redesign? (2) What's the partial-build option? - Output: Binary decision on mobile redesign status **0:25–0:50 | Contested Feature Debates [DISCUSS + DECIDE]** — Facilitator: VP Product [WATCH TIME] - Run through each of the 5 contested features (4 minutes per feature): (1) AI Search — address engineering scope concern directly. Is the estimate defensible? (2) Enterprise SSO — build vs. buy analysis. What's the revenue unlock? (3) Billing Upgrade — CFO's case. What's the cost of delaying 1 quarter? (4–5) [PM to present remaining two] - Questions per feature: (1) What's the strongest argument for? (2) What's the strongest argument against? (3) Given constraints, does it make the cut? - Output: In/Out/Defer decision on each feature **0:50–1:10 | Full Q4 List Review + Sequencing [DECIDE]** — Facilitator: VP Product - Review the consolidated In list against capacity model - Questions: (1) Does this fit? (2) What's the sequence/dependency order? (3) What are the milestone dates? - Output: Ranked, sequenced Q4 list with target milestone dates **1:10–1:20 | Q1 Backlog Confirmation [INFORM]** — Facilitator: VP Product - Confirm which features move to Q1 and in what priority order - Output: Q1 backlog starter list **1:20–1:30 | Action Items + Next Steps [ACTION]** — Facilitator: VP Product - Capture all actions, owners, due dates - Who sends the final Q4 list to the broader team, and by when? - Output: Complete action item table; clear communication plan ## Decision Log | Decision | Owner | Rationale | Date | |----------|-------|-----------|------| ## Action Items | Action | Owner | Due Date | Dependencies | |--------|-------|----------|--------------| ## Parking Lot *(Items to address after this meeting)* ## Post-Meeting VP Product sends decision summary + Q4 feature list to all product and engineering stakeholders by EOD Friday. Head of Engineering schedules sprint planning kickoff for Monday.
Tips for best results
- 1Send the agenda 48 hours in advance — not 10 minutes before the meeting. Pre-work only happens if people have time to do it.
- 2The [DECIDE] tag is the most important: state the decision criteria before the meeting so people don't spend time debating what they're deciding.
- 3Time-boxing is aspirational — build a 5-minute buffer between major sections so the facilitator can recover without running over.
- 4The parking lot is essential for keeping the meeting on track. Visibly capturing off-topic items lets people let go of them without feeling dismissed.
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