Meeting canvases · Plan and estimate
Planning poker, run in the call you are already in
Planning poker is a way for a team to estimate work together: each person picks a card for how big a story is, everyone shows their card at once so nobody’s number sways the rest, and the highest and lowest explain why. The team talks it through, votes again if it needs to, and records the size it agrees, usually in story points.
Troopa runs it in your Teams, Zoom or Google Meet call, on a board it calls Estimation poker. Say “Hi Troopa, let’s do estimation poker for the export story”, and each number people say goes on their card, face down until the cards are shown; then the board gives the low, middle and high, while the transcript keeps what was said about every story.
14 days free, no card. Then $15 per seat, per month. Cancel any time. Last checked against the product on 21 October 2026.
Why estimating on a call goes wrong
- The most senior engineer says “that’s a three” before anyone has thought about it, and every number after it is a three.
- Two people argue about one story for twenty minutes while everybody else answers email.
- The person running the session is typing numbers into a spreadsheet while trying to run the conversation.
- On a video call the numbers trickle into the chat one at a time, so the first few anchor the rest anyway.
- Somebody averages a 3 and a 13 into an 8, and nobody asks why two people pictured such different work.
- Three sprints later, nobody can remember why the story was a 13.
How to run planning poker with Troopa
Step 1: Open the round
Say “Hi Troopa, let’s do estimation poker for the export story”, or type it. Troopa offers the board as a meeting called a refinement starts, and in a planning meeting as soon as the room starts estimating.
Step 2: Everyone says their number
Agree that people write their number down before anybody speaks, then read them out. Each number goes on its person’s card as it is said.
Step 3: Talk about the spread
Say “show the cards”, or press Show cards, and the board gives the low, middle and high, and where the two ends are far apart, who holds them: “Tom and Priya, talk it through?”
Step 4: Agree, then move on
Say “we agree on eight” and the story takes its points; say “next story: invoice reminders” and a new round opens, with the total so far kept.
Step 5: Present it, then take it away
The cards stay face down until they are shown, on your screen and presented. Afterwards, download the stories and their points as CSV or Excel for your tracker.
A worked example: sizing a CSV export
A payments team refines its backlog on a Zoom call before sprint planning. The meeting is called “Payments backlog refinement”, so Troopa offers estimation poker as it starts, and Asha presses Start estimation poker. Three stories are sized before this one.
- Troopa, on your screen“Run estimation poker as you estimate?”
- Asha“Next story: the CSV export. Write your number down, then read it out.”
- Tom“Two. It’s one endpoint.”
- Priya“Thirteen. The export has to page through two years of invoices.”
- Mo“Five.”
- Lena“Five for me too.”
- Troopa, on your screen“Tom and Priya, talk it through?”
- Tom“I forgot about the history. That changes it.”
- Asha“So we agree on eight. Next story: invoice reminders.”
Planning poker beyond software teams
Fintech
A payments team sizes a regulatory reporting change. The compliance analyst’s 13 against the engineers’ 3s brings out the audit trail and record keeping nobody had counted, and the story is split before it is sized again.
Public sector digital and content teams
A service team sizes “update the eligibility guidance” with a content designer, a policy lead and a developer. The policy lead’s high card is the rule change the others had not heard about yet.
Agencies and consultancies
A delivery team sizes a client’s change request before the account lead quotes for it. The spread of the cards is the honest margin of risk, which is worth saying out loud before a number becomes a price.
E-commerce
A checkout team sizes the changes it wants in before the peak-season code freeze. Anything that comes out at 13 or more is split, or it waits until January.
Manufacturing and embedded software
A firmware team sizes a change to a controller. The test engineer votes high because the change needs time on the test rig, which is booked weeks ahead, and the plan changes because of it.
A planning poker template for any call
Use planning poker cards, fingers held up to the camera, or numbers written down and read out. What matters is that nobody hears anybody else’s number before they have chosen their own.
Story: [ID and title] Done means: [the acceptance criteria, in a line or two] Scale: 1 · 2 · 3 · 5 · 8 · 13 · 21 · ? (can’t say yet) · too big (split it) Reference: [a story everyone agrees was a 3] Round 1 (everyone chooses, then all reveal together) [name] [number] [name] [number] [name] [number] Lowest: [number], because [their reason] Highest: [number], because [their reason] Round 2 (only if the spread is wide) [name] [number] [name] [number] [name] [number] Outcome: agreed [points] / split into [stories] / not ready: [what we need to find out] Assumptions: [what the number takes for granted]
Questions to ask when the cards are far apart
- What do you know that made you go high, or low?
- Which story we have already done is this most like?
- What would have to be true for this to be a 13?
- Can we split it so each piece is an 8 or less?
- Do we know enough to estimate this, or do we need a short spike first?
- Give each story two or three minutes and two rounds at most; if it still splits, split the story, not the difference.
Questions about planning poker
How does planning poker work, step by step?
The product owner reads a story and answers questions. Each person picks a card for its size without saying it, everyone reveals at the same moment, and the people with the highest and lowest cards explain their thinking. The team votes again until the numbers are close, then records the size it agrees.
Who should take part in planning poker?
The people who will do the work vote, because they are the ones who know what it takes; the Scrum Guide gives sizing to the Developers. The product owner explains the story and answers questions, and a facilitator who will not do the work usually does not vote.The Scrum Guide (2020), by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland →
Why does planning poker use Fibonacci numbers?
Because the gaps grow as the numbers grow, as uncertainty does: nobody can tell a 20 from a 21, but a 2 and a 3 differ clearly. The scale matters more than people think, since one study found teams estimated lower on a Fibonacci scale than on a linear one, so pick one scale and keep it.Tamrakar and Jørgensen (2012), Does the use of Fibonacci numbers in planning poker affect effort estimates? →
Can you play planning poker remotely?
Yes: planning poker online works as long as the reveal stays honest. On a video call, have everyone write their number down before anybody speaks, then read them out quickly, or hold cards up to the camera on a count of three. The numbers people type into a chat one by one anchor each other, which is what the game exists to prevent.
What if the team cannot agree on an estimate?
Do not average: a 3 and a 13 usually mean two people are picturing different work. Talk about what the high and low voters know, then vote again; if the numbers still split, split the story, gather what is missing and come back to it, or take the lower number as the story’s inventor suggested.James Grenning, Planning Poker, or how to avoid analysis paralysis while release planning (2002) →
Who invented planning poker?
James Grenning described it in 2002, after a release planning meeting where two people debated one story while the rest of the team drifted off; his first deck ran from 1 to 10 days. Mike Cohn popularised it in his 2005 book, and his company, Mountain Goat Software, holds the trademark.Mountain Goat Software, Planning Poker →
Is planning poker the same as scrum poker?
Yes. Scrum poker, pointing poker and estimation poker are other names for the same technique: private estimates, revealed together, then discussed. Many tools use another name because Planning Poker is a registered trademark in the United States. Troopa calls its board Estimation poker.
Sources
- James Grenning, Planning Poker, or how to avoid analysis paralysis while release planning (2002)
- Agile Alliance glossary, Planning poker
- The Scrum Guide (2020), by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland
- Tamrakar and Jørgensen (2012), Does the use of Fibonacci numbers in planning poker affect effort estimates?
- Mountain Goat Software, Planning Poker
Read on 15 October 2026, by the people who make Troopa.
PLANNING POKER® is a registered trademark of Mountain Goat Software, LLC. Troopa is not affiliated with Mountain Goat Software.
Try it in your next meeting
Install Troopa on your Mac, Windows PC or Ubuntu computer, join your call on Teams, Zoom or Google Meet as you always do, and ask: “Hi Troopa, let’s do estimation poker.”
14 days free, no card. Then $15 per seat, per month. Cancel any time.