Granola Core Workflow A: Meeting Preparation & Templates

Overview

Configure Granola templates (which structure the enhanced output) and recipes (repeatable Chat prompts) for consistent, high-quality meeting notes. Granola ships with 29 built-in templates and supports custom templates per workspace.

Prerequisites

• Granola installed and authenticated
• Calendar synced with upcoming meetings
• At least one meeting captured (to understand the enhancement flow)

Instructions

Step 1 — Choose a Built-in Template

Click the Change template icon at the bottom of your notes before or during a meeting:

Templates tell the AI how to structure the enhanced output — a sales call produces different sections than a standup.

Step 2 — Create a Custom Template

1. Open Granola Settings > Templates
2. Click Create New Template
3. Define the structure using section headers:

## Customer Feedback Session

### Context
[Brief on the customer and their product usage]

### Key Feedback Themes
[Grouped by category: UX, Performance, Features, Support]

### Verbatim Quotes
[Direct customer quotes with timestamps]

### Severity Assessment
[Critical / High / Medium / Low for each issue]

### Action Items
[Owner, task, due date]

### Follow-Up Commitment
[What we promised the customer and by when]

1. Name it and optionally set auto-trigger conditions:

- Calendar event title contains specific keywords (e.g., "feedback", "customer") - Attendee email domains (e.g., @customer.com)

Step 3 — Create Recipes for Granola Chat

Recipes are saved prompts invoked with / in Granola Chat:

Create custom recipes at Settings > Recipes or directly in Chat.

Step 4 — Pre-Meeting Preparation

Before important meetings, type context into the Granola notepad before the call starts:

## Pre-Meeting Context
- Last meeting: discussed Series A timeline, concerns about runway
- Open items: term sheet review, board seat allocation
- My goals today: confirm valuation range, discuss liquidation preference
- Questions to ask: timeline for closing, co-investor status

When you click Enhance Notes after the meeting, Granola combines:

1. Your pre-meeting context
2. Your live notes during the meeting
3. The full audio transcript

This produces output that is aware of your goals and prior context.

Step 5 — Set Template Defaults per Workspace

For team deployments, set default templates per shared folder:

Output

• Templates configured for each meeting type
• Custom recipes created for post-meeting workflows
• Pre-meeting context workflow established
• Consistent structured output across team meetings

Error Handling

Template Design Best Practices

1. Use clear section headers — Granola's AI parses headers to organize content
2. Include bracketed hints — [Owner, task, due date] guides the AI output format
3. Keep templates under 10 sections — too many sections dilute content
4. Add a "Verbatim Quotes" section for customer-facing meetings — captures exact language
5. End with "Action Items" and "Next Steps" — the AI reliably fills these

Examples

For a fictional meeting fixture, record fixture=meeting-basic-v2; capture=accepted; output=redacted-summary; consent=test-only; retention=none; cleanup=complete rather than storing notes or transcript text.

Resources

• Customize Notes with Templates
• Introducing Recipes
• Get the Best from Granola

Next Steps

Proceed to granola-core-workflow-b for post-meeting processing and sharing workflows.