How to prepare for a client meeting in ten minutes
Most advice about meeting preparation assumes you have an hour. You have ten minutes, the call is at two, and you last spoke to this person six weeks ago.
This is the version that fits.
The four questions, in order
Preparation is not about knowing everything. It is about not being surprised by the two or three things that are actually going to come up. In practice that means four questions, and the order matters — each one narrows what you need from the next.
1. What did we decide last time, and why?
Not what you discussed. What you settled.
The why is the part people skip and the part that costs them. If you remember that you agreed on a ten-user pilot but not that you chose ten because you wanted real signal before scaling — while they pushed for fifty — then the moment they reopen it you have no argument, only a position. You will either re-litigate a decision that was already made or concede it by default.
Write down the decision and its reason in one line: "Ten-user pilot — we wanted real signal before scaling; they wanted fifty."
2. What did I promise, and did I do it?
Go through your own commitments first, before theirs. Two reasons.
The first is obvious: walking in having not done the thing you said you would, and not knowing it, is the single worst way to start.
The second is subtler. If you owe them something, you cannot credibly chase what they owe you until you have said so. Opening with "I still owe you the security review — that's on me, it's coming Thursday" buys you the standing to then ask about the thing that has been sitting on their side for a month.
Check whether it actually shipped, not whether you remember doing it. Those are different, and the gap between them is where the embarrassing moments live.
3. What did they promise, and has it gone quiet?
Now theirs. Specifically: which commitments have stopped being mentioned.
A promise that nobody has referred to in three weeks is not progressing. It is either forgotten, blocked, or quietly abandoned — and all three are worth raising today, because all three get more expensive the longer they sit.
This is the highest-value thing in the whole ten minutes, and it is the one almost nobody does, because it requires remembering the absence of something.
4. What was asked and never answered?
Every meeting leaves a residue: questions someone raised that got deferred, talked past, or lost when the conversation moved on. "Can this integrate with our CRM?" "What happens to our data if we churn?" "Who owns this on your side?"
An unanswered question is not neutral. It is usually the thing quietly blocking the decision you want them to make. Finding one of these before the call and arriving with the answer is worth more than any amount of general polish.
Then, and only then, look forward
Once you know where things actually stand, the forward-looking part is fast:
- One outcome you want. Just one. If you want three things from this call you will get none of them.
- The likely objection, and your honest answer to it. If your answer is not honest you will be found out on the call, not before it.
- One question you genuinely do not know the answer to. Meetings where you learn something go better than meetings where you perform.
What this looks like written down
Five lines. Not a document.
Dana Levi — Acme — Thurs 2pm Last: agreed 10-user pilot (we wanted real signal first; she wanted 50). I owe: security review — shipped Tuesday, mention it. She owes: legal sign-off. Promised 12 Jun. Nobody has mentioned it since. Unanswered: what happens to their data if they don't renew. Want: a start date for the pilot.
That is the whole thing. Ten minutes, and you walk in knowing more about the relationship than they expect you to.
The reason this is hard
None of the above is complicated. It is hard for one boring reason: the information is scattered across six weeks of notes you did not write carefully, and reconstructing it takes longer than the ten minutes you have.
That is the problem Kika was built for. It writes the notes from each call, then tracks the decisions, the open questions and the promises on both sides — and five minutes before the next meeting it hands you exactly the brief above, from what it already remembers. Every line cites the meeting and date it came from, so you can check it rather than trust it.
It also reads your merged pull requests, which means it stops telling you that you owe someone work you already shipped.
See what Kika remembers — 300 free meeting minutes a month, no card.