Templates · Ideas & planning

Lean Coffee

An agenda the team builds on the spot: propose topics, vote, then talk them through one at a time, the most wanted first.

What it is

Lean Coffee is a meeting without a prepared agenda. People propose what they want to talk about, vote, and take the topics one at a time, starting with the one most of them asked for. The three columns follow a topic through the session: waiting, in play, finished.

Goal

The team spends its time on what most people care about today, and every topic it closes ends with a commitment or with the plain statement that none is needed.

When to use it

• The team has plenty to say and it does not fit the usual questions: open questions, concerns that cross teams, a mixed bag of irritants.
• Retrospectives have become a routine and the same cards come back.
• The group does not share a sprint: a guild, a community of practice.
• Time is short: the session can stop after any topic.

When to pick another format

An open agenda counts on people arriving with something to raise. A new or quiet team usually gets more from fixed prompts such as Went well, To improve, Action ideas. When the group only has to choose among options, Dot Voting is shorter. When one incident deserves the whole session, Post-mortem is built for it.

How to run it

1. To discuss: everyone proposes topics, one per card, worded so that the others understand without an explanation. Merge the duplicates, then vote. The votes are the agenda.
2. Discussing: take the topic with the most votes, and only that one. Give it a short, fixed time. When it runs out, ask the group for a quick signal: carry on for a shorter stretch, or move on.
3. Discussed: a topic is finished when the group moves on, even if not everything has been said. Before opening the next one, ask what this column asks: is there a commitment? If so, write it as an action with an owner. If not, say so aloud, so that nobody leaves believing someone else will act.

Stop when the time is over, whatever is left. The topics still in To discuss were outvoted: say so, and invite their authors to bring them back next time.

Columns

To start a retrospective from this template, see Create a retro.