BoardSnap is an iOS app that converts whiteboard photos into clean summaries and action items in about ten seconds. This skip-level meeting template structures a direct conversation with people two levels below you — what's working, what's not, and what you should know that their manager doesn't know you should know.
Run skip-level meetings quarterly — once every three months per person or team. More frequently can feel like surveillance; less frequently means you're running on filtered information.
Use the whiteboard during the meeting to take visible notes. The person you're meeting with should see exactly what you're writing — this builds trust and signals that the conversation is collaborative, not evaluative.
Open with this. Ask: 'What's working well on your team or in your work that you'd want me to know about?' Write their answers verbatim — don't interpret. The exact words tell you more than a summary. If they say 'the team rallied around the launch,' write that, not 'team cohesion.'
The more important section. Ask: 'What's making work harder than it should be?' or 'What do you wish were different?' Write every frustration. Don't defend. Don't explain. Just write. The fact that you're writing signals that you take it seriously.
The skip-level-specific section. Ask directly: 'Is there anything you think I should know that might not be making it to me?' Pause. Wait. This is where the most valuable information lives — the thing that the reporting chain smoothed over or deprioritized.
Forward-looking: 'If you could change one thing about how this team operates or what you're working on, what would it be?' This section often surfaces process improvements, resource gaps, and tool frustrations that don't rise to the level of a formal complaint.
Before closing: what will you do with what you heard? Write your commitments explicitly. 'I'll look into the deployment bottleneck by Friday' or 'I'll raise the tool issue in the next leadership sync.' Don't promise more than you'll deliver — but deliver what you promise.
Let the direct manager know you're doing skip-levels — not what was discussed, but that it's happening. Skip-levels run in secret feel like audits. Skip-levels run transparently feel like investment.
Start with: 'The goal of this meeting is for me to hear directly from you — what's working, what's not, and what I should know. Everything you say here is between us unless you'd like me to act on something.' Psychological safety upfront changes the conversation.
Write their answers on the whiteboard as they speak. They see the words go up. This signals that you're listening and that the information matters. It also prevents the response of 'it'll get filtered on the way up' — they can see the filter is absent.
This question takes courage to answer. Wait for it. Give 10–15 seconds of silence if needed. The first answer is usually safe. The second, if you ask 'is there anything else,' is often the real answer.
Write your commitments in the 'next steps' column with a timeline. The person needs to see that the conversation produces consequences — otherwise the next skip-level will be more guarded.
BoardSnap reads all five sections and produces a clean summary. The themes that appear in multiple sections become the priority action items. Commitments you wrote become dated tasks.
A skip-level run on your laptop, with you typing notes in a Notion doc the person can't see, feels like an HR interview. A skip-level run at a whiteboard, where every word they say goes on the board in front of both of you, feels like a real conversation.
BoardSnap captures the real conversation — not a cleaned-up version you'd write in a follow-up email. The themes, the exact words, and your commitments are all there. At the next skip-level, you can show what you did with what they told you.
Share themes, not attributions. 'I'm hearing that the deployment process is a frustration for the team' is shareable. 'Sarah told me the deployment process frustrates her' breaks trust and will make future skip-levels useless. The manager should know the issue; they don't need to know who surfaced it.
Every person two levels below you, once per quarter, is the ideal. For a manager of managers with 20 skip-level reports, prioritize: new team members, people on critical projects, and anyone whose manager has flagged concerns.
That's information too. Guardedness in a skip-level usually means psychological safety is low or they don't trust that the conversation is confidential. Name it directly: 'I notice you're being pretty careful — is there something about this conversation that feels risky?' That often opens the door.
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