☕️ Lean Coffee Lounge

Welcome to the Lean Coffee Lounge! Let’s brew up fresh ideas, kick stale habits, and savor what’s working as we collaborate café-style on our agile journey.
45–60 min
4-10 people
Based on: Start, Stop, Continue
☕️ Lean Coffee Lounge
Template Columns
🍵 Fresh Brews (Start)

Suggest new practices or ideas that we should start pouring into our workflow.

Base column: Start
🛑 Bitter Brews (Stop)

Call out the habits or processes that leave a bad aftertaste and need to be stopped.

Base column: Stop
☕️ House Favorites (Continue)

Highlight the crowd-pleasers and routines we should keep refilling on our agile menu.

Base column: Continue
About this template

The Lean Coffee Lounge retrospective blends open discussion with a structured approach, helping teams start fresh initiatives, stop ineffective habits, and continue successful routines in a relaxed, café-inspired atmosphere.

When to use this template

Use this format when you want to encourage open dialogue and prioritize conversation topics as a group, especially after sprints where innovation and habit change are important.

How to facilitate
1

Begin by welcoming everyone and introducing the Lean Coffee Lounge theme to set a relaxed, open tone.

2

Ask team members to add their ideas to the Fresh Brews, Bitter Brews, and House Favorites columns without discussion, allowing quiet time for reflection or writing.

3

Review all the cards together and cluster similar ones to streamline discussion topics.

4

Let the group vote on which items they most want to discuss further—allocate more time to the top-voted topics.

5

Facilitate time-boxed discussions for each topic, ensuring balanced participation and capturing action items or insights as you go.

6

Summarize the main takeaways and review the action items, assigning clear owners and due dates where possible.

7

Invite brief feedback on the retrospective process to help improve future sessions.

Pro Tips

Use a virtual timer during topic discussions to keep conversations focused and respect everyone’s time.

Encourage quieter team members to contribute by providing a few moments for silent reflection before sharing.

Mix up the order of column discussions occasionally to keep the format fresh and engaging.

Follow up on previous action items to maintain accountability and build trust.

FAQ
What makes Lean Coffee Lounge different from a standard retrospective?

Lean Coffee Lounge gives the team control over discussion topics through voting and open input, allowing for more organic and relevant conversations.

How do we ensure all voices are heard, especially in a virtual setting?

Provide quiet time for everyone to submit ideas and use features like chat or polls to include less vocal members in voting and discussion.

What if we don’t get to all the voted topics?

Prioritize the most popular topics and carry over less-discussed items to the next retrospective if they are still relevant.

At a glance
  • Duration

    45–60 min

  • Team Size

    4-10 people

  • Columns

    3 columns

  • Base Format

    Start, Stop, Continue

Tags
innovation
reflection
team engagement
agile
continuous improvement
discussion-driven
action-oriented
Ready to get started?

Use this template to run your next retrospective