Lean Coffee
A structured but agenda-less meeting format developed by Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith. Participants propose topics, vote on them democratically, and discuss the highest-priority topics in timeboxed slots. A simple Kanban board (To Discuss / Discussing / Discussed) tracks progress. It ensures every minute is spent on what the group actually wants to talk about.
Comment l'animer
- 1
Set up a simple Kanban board with three columns: To Discuss, Discussing, Discussed.
- 2
Each participant writes discussion topics on sticky notes (1–2 minutes).
- 3
Everyone places their topics in the 'To Discuss' column.
- 4
Each participant gets 2 votes (dot stickers or marks) and votes on topics they want to discuss.
- 5
Sort topics by votes. Move the top topic to 'Discussing'.
- 6
Set a timer for 8 minutes. Discuss the topic.
- 7
When the timer rings, vote: thumbs up to continue (2 more minutes) or thumbs down to move on.
- 8
Move the completed topic to 'Discussed' and start the next highest-voted topic.
- 9
Continue until time runs out or all topics are covered.
Conseils
8 minutes per topic feels short but forces focus.
Trust the process — the vote to continue prevents any single topic dominating.
Works brilliantly for remote teams with a digital board.
Variantes
Run asynchronously by collecting topics in a shared doc before the meeting. Use a longer initial timebox (15 min) for deeply technical topics.
Contextes d'utilisation
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Essayer gratuitementMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Community.