Lean Coffee Template
Run structured but agenda-less meetings with confidence. The Lean Coffee Template combines an easy-to-learn structure with a participant-controlled agenda to host satisfying meetings.
About the Lean Coffee Template
Lean Coffee is an innovative format that allows participants to run meetings without a facilitator or an agenda. The structure evolves naturally from the needs of the people present, leading to a rewarding meeting where everyone gets a say.
What is Lean Coffee?
The Lean Coffee approach is a new way to structure meetings. The focus is on making the best use of everyone’s time and on using a mutually agreed-on agenda to ensure everyone is fully invested.
And you don’t even need coffee! (Though that can help).
While it may seem impossible to have a meeting without a leader and prior planning, the Lean Coffee format makes it simple. Everyone can suggest as many topics as they can think of, then participants vote for the topics they want to discuss.
Each topic gets a five-minute timebox to start. At the end of five minutes, a majority vote determines whether to keep talking or move on to the next topic.
Because everyone votes on the topics, no one person or voice is in danger of dominating, encouraging participants to share their different perspectives.
When to use Lean Coffee
Lean Coffee, at its heart, is just a set of rules that mimics and gamifies the natural ebb and flow of conversation. As such, it can be used in virtually any formal social group. It also works in any setting, from corporate meeting rooms to coffee shops and bars. It’s even possible to hold them virtually by inviting everyone to a Miro board with the Lean Coffee Template. A Lean Coffee meeting can also have any subject, but it’s especially useful for team brainstorms or retrospectives. In a Lean Coffee brainstorm, every topic suggested should be an idea that relates to the general theme. In a retrospective, each topic is a lesson the participant believes the team should carry forward. These sessions work best in small groups (ideally 10 people or less), either as a one-off experiment or on a regular cadence (such as twice-weekly).
You can also use Lean Coffee as an educational tool. If, for example, your teammates are new to a methodology such as Agile or Scrum, you can hold a Lean Coffee as a sort of ‘lightning round' to get everyone up to speed with essential concepts.
How to host a Lean Coffee
Making your own Lean Coffee meeting is easy. Miro is the perfect tool to create and share them. Get started by selecting the Lean Coffee Template, then take the following steps.
Decide on a theme. This is an optional step but can help if participants have trouble coming up with topics. If you’re holding a brainstorming or retrospective Lean Coffee, the theme is already there when you start.
Collect your discussion topics in the first column. Ask everyone to add sticky notes with their preferred topics. Keep the topics brief and on-point for readability. Some participants may only have broad “themes”, whereas other participants may have specific ideas they want to unpack. Both are welcome.
Prioritize topics by voting. Use emojis to “dot vote” (two to three votes per person) for your favorite topics to discuss. People can either spread their votes across topics or use all their votes on one topic. Use Miro’s Countdown Timer to keep voting to under three minutes. When you’ve built your agenda, move the first topic into the next column.
Start your timer and begin the discussion. The group can start discussing topics in order of popularity. The person who suggested the topic has an opportunity to discuss it in-depth.
Use majority voting to continue, stop, or indicate mixed feelings about the topic discussion. After 5 minutes, the group can vote on whether to continue talking or move on to the next topic. Repeat as needed to expand the discussion or keep moving. It’s important to keep timeboxing discussions so that everyone can contribute and participate.
As you move from topic to topic, update the columns accordingly. To help everyone keep track of the different topics, move the sticky note topics to “Being Discussed” or “Discussed.”
Wrap up the meeting and get everyone to contribute an insight. Save the last five minutes of the Lean Coffee to ask each person to share their learning or a key takeaway. If the majority of the group expresses that they’d like a hold a Lean Coffee meeting again, reschedule it for a date in the near future.
Why is it called Lean Coffee?
The term “Lean Coffee” creates the impression of efficiency in a relaxed atmosphere. “Lean” means the meeting won’t waste anyone’s time, and “Coffee” suggests it will be laid-back and enjoyable. Of course, it’s up to the participants to ensure the name is accurate!
What is the purpose of a Lean Coffee?
A Lean Coffee creates a space for structured discussion without boxing participants into an agenda devised by someone else. No matter what the topic, a Lean Coffee is designed to ensure everyone gets to discuss their concerns and interests.
How do you do a virtual Lean Coffee session?
Use Miro's collaborative workspace to let every attendee see the same whiteboard. Before the meeting, make sure everyone knows how to create sticky notes and vote using emojis. This will save time during the Lean Coffee itself.
How do you run a retrospective Lean Coffee?
A retrospective Lean Coffee is exactly the same as any other, except that the overall topic is a project or other effort that just ended. Topics should relate to some lesson carried forward from the completed effort.
Work Plan Template
Works best for:
Mapping, Project Planning
A work plan is essentially a roadmap for a project. It articulates the steps you must take to achieve the desired goal, sets demonstrable objectives, and establishes measurable deliverables. An effective work plan guides you throughout the project lifecycle, allowing you to realize an outcome by collaborating with your team. Although work plans vary, they generally contain four core components: goals, strategy, tactics, and deliverables.
Product Management Onboarding Map
Works best for:
Product Management, Planning
Product Management Onboarding Map template facilitates the onboarding of new product management team members. By outlining key responsibilities, processes, and stakeholder interactions, this template helps new hires quickly acclimate to their roles. With sections for setting learning objectives and resources, it supports structured onboarding experiences, ensuring that new team members are equipped with the knowledge and tools needed to contribute effectively to product initiatives.
Scrum Compass
Works best for:
Agile, Meetings, Workshops
The Scrum Compass is a visual tool for guiding Scrum teams through their journey. It provides a structured framework for understanding Scrum roles, events, artifacts, and values. This template offers a comprehensive overview of Scrum principles and practices, enabling teams to align on common goals, roles, and processes. By promoting clarity and alignment, the Scrum Compass empowers teams to navigate the complexities of Agile development and deliver value with confidence and efficiency.
Burndown Chart Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Agile Workflows, Mapping
Whoa whoa whoa, pace yourself! That means knowing how much work is left—and, based on the delivery date, how much time you’ll have for each task. Perfect for project managers, Burndown Charts create a clear visualization of a team’s remaining work to help get it done on time and on budget. These charts have other big benefits, too. They encourage transparency and help individual team members be aware of their work pace so they can adjust or maintain it.
Feature Canvas Template
Works best for:
Design, Desk Research, Product Management
When you’re working on a new feature that solves a problem for your users, it’s easy to dive right in and start looking for solutions. However, it’s important to understand the initial user problem first. Use the Feature Canvas template to do a deep-dive into the user’s problems, the context in which they will use your feature, and the value proposition you will deliver to your users. The template enables you to spend more time exploring the problem to anticipate any potential blind spots before jumping into solutions mode.
Daily Stand-up Meeting Template
Works best for:
Agile Methodology, Meetings, Software Development
The entire team meets to review the day before and discuss the day ahead. These daily meetings, also known as “scrums,” are brief but powerful — they identify roadblocks, give each team member a voice, foster collaboration, keep progress on track, and ultimately keep teams working together effectively. This template makes it so easy for you to plan daily standups for your sprint team. It all starts with picking a date and time, creating an agenda, and sticking with the same format throughout the sprint.