Lean Coffee Retrospective

• When the team has many different things on its mind.
• Retros that keep running out of time on the first topic.
• Communities of practice and cross-team discussions.

Purpose: Let participants determine the discussion agenda democratically.

• 📝 To Discuss

  Propose a topic

• 🗣️ Discussing Now

  The topic on the table

• ✅ Discussed

  Topics we covered

1. 1

   Generate topics silently · 5 min

   Everyone adds topics they'd like to talk about, one per card.

2. 2

   Clarify topics · 5 min

   Each author gives a one-sentence pitch of their topic. Merge duplicates.

3. 3

   Vote · 3 min

   Everyone spends their votes on what matters most. Totals stay hidden until you move on.

4. 4

   Discuss in timeboxed rounds · 20 min

   Pull the top topic into Discussing Now — the round timer starts. When it ends, the team votes to continue or move on.

5. 5

   Capture decisions & actions · 5 min

   Turn the decisions from each topic into actions with owners.

Notes a software team might write:

Expected outcome: Team-selected discussion topics, decisions, and improvement actions.

• Rounds of 5–8 minutes keep energy up.
• It's fine not to reach every topic — the most important ones go first.

Topics move from To Discuss to Discussing Now to Discussed. Each round is timeboxed, and the team votes 👍 keep going or 👋 move on before the next round.

Each stage comes with instructions for the facilitator and the participants and a suggested timer you can adjust. Teammates join with a link and their name; no account needed.