Get-to-know-you questions

Get-to-know-you questions fail when the depth does not match the trust in the room. Asking a group that met yesterday “what motivates you more: praise, progress, or purpose?” produces four identical safe answers. Asking the same question to a team eighteen months in produces the best conversation of the quarter. Same question, opposite result — so these are sorted by how much trust each group needs rather than by topic.

Start with the first group for new teams and onboarding weeks: concrete, factual, easy to answer with one sentence. Use the silly group when a team is warm but new. Save the deeper group for offsites, quarterly resets, and teams that have already been through something together. The small-group set at the end assumes everyone gets a turn and follow-up questions are welcome, which needs three to six people, not twelve.

Where did you grow up, and what’s one thing you love about it?

65 questions in this set — nothing repeats until you have seen them all. No sign-up, no limits.

65 get-to-know-you questions

Get-to-know-you questions for new teams

  1. 1Where did you grow up, and what’s one thing you love about it?
  2. 2What was your first job ever?
  3. 3What did you want to be when you were ten?
  4. 4What’s a hobby you could talk about for an hour?
  5. 5What’s the best trip you’ve ever taken?
  6. 6What skill are you currently trying to learn?
  7. 7Who has influenced you the most professionally?
  8. 8What’s your hidden talent?
  9. 9What’s a book, show, or game you’d recommend to anyone?
  10. 10What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
  11. 11If you could live in any city for a year, which one?
  12. 12What’s a food from your childhood you still crave?
  13. 13What’s something you’ve made that you’re proud of?
  14. 14What language would you love to speak fluently?
  15. 15What’s your favourite way to spend a day off?
  16. 16What’s one thing on your bucket list?
  17. 17What was your first screen name, and what’s the story behind it?
  18. 18If you didn’t work in your current field, what would you be doing?
  19. 19What’s a small purchase that improved your life way more than expected?
  20. 20What’s one thing people are usually surprised to learn about you?
  21. 21What’s a place you’d go back to immediately if you could?
  22. 22What’s something you learned recently that surprised you?
  23. 23Who in your life would you call first with good news?
  24. 24What’s a habit you’ve kept for years that actually works?

Silly get-to-know-you questions

  1. 1What’s your most-used excuse, and does it still work?
  2. 2What would your walk-up song be if life had one?
  3. 3What’s the silliest thing you’re genuinely competitive about?
  4. 4What nickname did you have that you’d rather forget?
  5. 5What’s your signature “I’m bad at this” activity?
  6. 6What’s the most unhinged thing in your camera roll right now?
  7. 7What’s your weirdest habit that you’ve fully normalised?
  8. 8What household item are you inexplicably fussy about?
  9. 9What’s the silliest reason you’ve ever cried?
  10. 10What’s a talent you’ve invented a name for?
  11. 11What would the reality show about your life be called?
  12. 12What’s your most-repeated phrase, according to people who know you?
  13. 13What’s the pettiest revenge you’ve ever taken?
  14. 14What do you do that your friends find hilarious and you find completely normal?
  15. 15What’s the silliest thing you’ve bought on impulse in the last year?
  16. 16What’s the most ridiculous thing you’re saving “just in case”?

Questions that go a little deeper

  1. 1What’s the best decision you made this year?
  2. 2What’s something difficult you’re proud of having handled?
  3. 3What does a “good day at work” actually look like for you?
  4. 4What motivates you more: praise, progress, or purpose?
  5. 5What’s one thing this team does that you’d brag about elsewhere?
  6. 6When do you do your best thinking — and are we protecting that time?
  7. 7What’s a professional risk you’d like to take someday?
  8. 8What’s one thing you wish more people asked you about?
  9. 9What part of your job would you happily do for free?
  10. 10What do you want to be true about your work a year from now?

Get-to-know-you questions for small groups

  1. 1What’s the story behind your name?
  2. 2What’s something you changed your mind about in the last year?
  3. 3What’s the best meal you’ve had recently, and where?
  4. 4What tiny thing instantly improves your day?
  5. 5What’s a tradition — family, cultural, personal — you love?
  6. 6What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?
  7. 7If you could have dinner with anyone living, who?
  8. 8What’s a compliment you received that stuck with you?
  9. 9What were you completely obsessed with as a teenager?
  10. 10What’s your favourite family recipe or dish?
  11. 11What’s one thing you’re better at than you give yourself credit for?
  12. 12What place feels most like home to you?
  13. 13What’s a risk you took that paid off?
  14. 14What’s your favourite season, and what does it smell like?
  15. 15What would your perfect Saturday look like, hour by hour?

Facilitator tip

Depth without trust reads as an interrogation. The reliable test before asking a deeper question: would you be comfortable answering it first, in front of this exact group, with your manager present? If not, the room is not ready — and the fix is not a gentler tone, it is a shallower question.

Frequently asked questions

What are good get-to-know-you questions for adults?+

Concrete and factual beats abstract and reflective, especially early. “What was your first job ever?” gets a real story; “what are your values?” gets a job-interview answer. Adults in a work context are managing how they are perceived, so questions that have an obvious factual answer feel safe, while questions that ask for self-assessment feel like a test.

What are silly get-to-know-you questions good for?+

Teams that are warm but still new — a few weeks in, past the awkward stage, not yet close. Silly questions let people show personality without disclosing anything private, which is exactly the right trade at that point. They also work well when a serious question has just landed flat and you need to reset the energy.

How many get-to-know-you questions should I ask at once?+

One, for a normal meeting. These take longer to answer than icebreakers — a real answer to “what’s the best trip you’ve ever taken?” runs 30 to 60 seconds, so one question with ten people is already a ten-minute activity. For onboarding sessions or offsites, three to five works if the whole block is scheduled for it.

Are these suitable for onboarding a new team member?+

Yes, and the direction matters: have the existing team answer first, then the new person. Going last means they have heard the range of acceptable answers and are not guessing at the norms. Pick from the first group — a new joiner should never be the first person asked a deeper question.

Use these in your next retro

FocusRetro opens with a check-in question, then gives the same team a calm board for honest feedback, blind voting, and action items that survive until next sprint.

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