Planning Poker is one of the most effective tools for agile teams to estimate work together. But let’s be honest—after dozens of sessions, things can get stale. If your team is zoning out or always landing on the same estimates without discussion, it’s time to shake things up.
Here are five ideas to keep your sessions sharp, fun, and productive.
🍕 Themed Estimation Sessions
Turn your Planning Poker into a mini event. Pick a theme—Pizza Day, Retro Games, Space Mission—and rename your story point cards accordingly (e.g., 1 = "Slice of Pepperoni", 13 = "Whole Pizza"). It sounds silly, but it lightens the mood and gets people talking. You can use custom estimate type for this purpose, which allows you to quickly add a new voting system for your team.
⏱️ Set a Timebox per Story
Instead of dragging discussions forever, add a 3–5 minute timer per story. If the team can’t agree, park it and come back after more clarification. Use this to avoid the "let’s talk this to death" trap.
🎭 Role Rotation
Assign playful roles during the session. One person is the Devil’s Advocate and must challenge every assumption. Another is the Optimist, always arguing for the simplest path. This creates balance in discussions and helps surface hidden complexities.
🧩 Break Down the Big Ones
If someone throws a 13 and someone else a 2, don’t just average it. Stop and ask: "What did you see that I missed?" Then break the story into smaller chunks live. This makes estimates more accurate and improves backlog quality. While our service can show you the average and median of your votes, we still encourage you to discuss the results and maybe even re-estimate the task when needed.
🤫 Vote Silently, Discuss Loudly
Before anyone starts defending their estimates, have everyone reveal their vote at the same time—without explaining. Then go around and ask the outliers to explain why they voted high or low. Our service doesn't show your team's votes until they are revealed.
Final Thoughts
Planning Poker is more than flipping cards. It’s a chance to share understanding, challenge assumptions, and get aligned. With the right ideas, it becomes something your team actually looks forward to.
Try a few of these in your next session on Scrumpoker.it and let us know what worked best for your team!