Lean Coffee Session Template

Lean coffee is a structured but agendaless meeting where the group builds the agenda live, votes on what matters, and discusses topics in timeboxes. This lean coffee template explains the format so you can run a democratic session where people only talk about what they actually care about.

When to use it

Use lean coffee when you want conversation without a rigid agenda: team retrospectives, open office hours, community meetups, skip-level discussions, or any recurring sync that tends to drift. It works because the people in the room decide what is worth their time, so engagement stays high and nobody sits through topics they do not care about.

Who attends

You need a light facilitator who keeps the board and the timer moving, and three to ten participants. It scales down to a small team and up to a meetup, but past ten people the discussion gets crowded, so split into parallel tables if the group is large.

How to run it

Set up three columns: To Discuss, Discussing, and Discussed. Everyone writes topics, then dot-votes to prioritize. Move the top topic to Discussing and talk for a fixed timebox, usually five minutes. When time is up, a quick thumbs vote decides whether to keep going or move on. Work down the list until time runs out, then capture decisions and carry-over topics. The structure does the facilitation for you.

Facilitator tips

• Keep the timebox short; the vote-to-continue keeps good topics alive.
• Stay light. The format facilitates itself, so resist over-managing.
• Use a visible timer so the timebox is obvious to everyone.
• Capture action items as they appear; do not rely on memory.
• Honor the votes even when your favorite topic loses.

Common mistakes

• Letting a topic run forever and skipping the continue vote.
• The facilitator steering the agenda instead of letting votes decide.
• Skipping the timer so one topic eats the whole hour.
• Forgetting to capture decisions and action items.
• Running it with too many people so few get to speak.

Build the board, run the timeboxes, and capture the carry-overs in one place. Run it in OrgTP.