What is Lean Coffee?
Lean Coffee is a structured, time-boxed, but agenda-free meeting format designed to facilitate focused discussions and maximize team productivity. The term combines the concept of lean methodology with the casual, conversational vibe of a coffee gathering.
Using a simple democratic process, team members propose topics, vote on priorities, and engage in time-boxed discussions. This approach empowers teams to tackle the most relevant issues efficiently while keeping conversations on track. It typically uses three main columns—To Discuss, In Progress, and Discussed. This helps organize and track the flow of topics.
Lean Coffee is an ideal tool for retrospectives or team meetings, allowing the team to collaboratively create the agenda and themes rather than setting them in advance. It can help teams prioritize challenges, celebrate wins, and build ownership and agency in the meeting.
How to Facilitate a Lean Coffee
Share the Purpose: Begin with a clear goal or focus for the session, such as process improvement. Leave the space open for a diverse range of ideas, or, if desired, provide some guidance on what kind of topics are especially welcomed.
Everyone Adds Topics to Discuss: Participants can add individual topics or questions as cards under the To Discuss column. Each card represents a single topic. No idea is too small. Use the anonymity option to encourage more ideas if this helps people feel more comfortable.
Discuss Each Card: Each topic is discussed one at a time for a set time (e.g. 5 minutes). After time expires, ask the group if they would like to either continue, create an action item, or move on. This ensures that discussions remain focused and allows all topics to be covered.
Capture Key Takeaways and Actions: Based on the discussions, note any conclusions, actions, or follow-ups that emerge. This is where the main insights and decisions are summarized for future reference. Capture actions for items, park topics, or create team agreements to effectively address issues. When complete, move the topic to the Discussed column.
Suggested Icebreaker Questions for Lean Coffee
- What’s one productivity hack you’ve recently tried that has (or hasn’t) worked?
- If our team had a coffee blend, what would it be called and what flavors would represent our recent work experience?
- What’s one new thing you learned this week (work-related or personal)?
- What’s one “small change” you think could make a big impact on our workflow?
Ideas and Tips for running Lean Coffee
- Foster Inclusivity in Speaking: Ensure all participants have a chance to speak by actively inviting quieter team members to share their thoughts.
- Encourage “Just Enough” Discussion: Avoid deep dives during the first discussion pass. This lets you capture the main points that will allow the team to decide if more time is needed at the end of the time limit.
- Encourage Diverse Topics: Allow participants to propose any topic they feel is relevant, even if it seems minor. Lean Coffee is agenda-less by design, so encourage the team to bring up both technical and interpersonal issues. This open format can reveal insights not typically shared in structured retrospectives.
- Use Dot Voting to Prioritize: If there are a lot of topics and limited time, use the voting or reaction feature to see which topic the team thinks is the highest priority and should be discussed first.
- Be Strict with Time: Set a 3 or 5 minute limit for the first pass for each topic. That is all that is needed for the team to decide if it warrants a second discussion pass.
- Avoid Going Off Topic: Sometimes a topic may be way off theme, but still important. These items can still be captured and parked for future reference.
- Focus on Action Items First Before Defining the Solution: It can be easy to fall into the trap of deep diving into a solution for an action item during the lean coffee. Set up a separate meeting, or make that a meeting topic if that is relevant.