How AI helped us bring back one-on-ones at MarsBased

At MarsBased, we’ve always known how important it is to have one-on-ones with developers and teammates from time to time. The problem was consistency. We often went through periods of doing them regularly, but we never managed to make them a steady part of our routine.

As a small company, this wasn’t a major issue at first. I was involved in most projects, and through day-to-day collaboration, we could exchange feedback naturally, both ways. Occasionally, we’d also schedule deeper career discussions and performance reviews, especially when someone stood out in their role. These talks often led to salary adjustments, my partners and I conduct quarterly evaluations of every team member to review their progress and assess raises based on both individual performance and the company’s financial health.

Still, something was missing. The feedback shared during those interactions was rarely documented, and as we grew, it became harder for me to stay connected with everyone. Some employees inevitably received less feedback and attention, which became a real problem.

The challenge of time

The main blocker was time. A proper one-on-one isn’t just a quick chat, it involves preparation, execution, and follow-up. You need to review notes from past sessions, track previous action items, assess the person’s progress, hold the meeting (30–60 minutes), and then document everything, update tasks, and communicate the next steps. In total, each one-on-one can easily take three hours. With 10 employees, that’s 30 hours; with 20, it’s 60. The time investment grows fast.

We’ve always believed it’s valuable for me, the CTO, to lead these sessions, even though we once tried having our People Operations (HR in other companies, for that matter) profiles manage them. That approach worked reasonably well but lacked the technical insight employees often seek from leadership.

How AI changed everything

Fortunately, things have started to change thanks to artificial intelligence. For the past few months, we’ve been using Gemini Notes to transcribe meetings. We now record all one-on-ones with transcription enabled and store them in each employee’s dedicated Google Drive folder, accessible only to the employee and the management team. Each folder contains all relevant management conversations, whether from HR, project management, or technical one-on-ones with me.

This setup has removed the manual effort of taking notes and creating action items. Gemini’s transcription and summarization capabilities are proving excellent for this use case. They not only simplify documentation but also make it easier to prepare for future sessions and identify when someone hasn’t received enough attention lately.

The impact

As a result, we’ve dramatically increased the frequency and quality of one-on-ones at MarsBased. Employees feel more connected and engaged, no longer isolated within individual projects but part of an organization that listens, supports, and grows with them.