Lean Coffee
Lean Coffee is an ideation warm-up exercise for reflection and learning: it helps participants reflect on experience and turn observations into learning.
How to run it
- Leancoffee.org explains the meeting format as follows:
- Like other retrospective or agile meeting formats, Lean Coffee is used extensively in software development. In reality, it’s a powerful agendaless meeting format that any team can benefit from.
- So here’s what you need for a successful Lean Coffee meeting - apart from a hot cup of joe:
- Reflection board: Whether it’s a kanban board, a whiteboard, or an online tool, team members need somewhere to write down their reflections and order their thoughts.
- Traditionally, these types of meetings would occur in an open space in the office. Some teams even choose to hold their group discussion in a coffee shop! These days, more teams opt to do their Lean Coffee meetings over Zoom with the help of an online tool like Parabol.
- Personal ProductivityStartups TemplatesConsultantsEducation
- Reflections: Teams will spend time reflecting or brainstorming on the issues they want to discuss most.
- 24 Difficulty: High by Personal Use Method Goal Guide group conversations smarter: Get common understandig, listen do different views and do it rela
- CollaborationCollaboratively create agendas in real-time.
Run this exercise live
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What participants need now
Materials:
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Prompts to use +
Reflection board: Whether it’s a kanban board, a whiteboard, or an online tool, team members need somewhere to write down their reflections and order their thoughts.
Traditionally, these types of meetings would occur in an open space in the office. Some teams even choose to hold their group discussion in a coffee shop! These days, more teams opt to do their Lean Coffee meetings over Zoom with the help of an online tool like Parabol.
Reflections: Teams will spend time reflecting or brainstorming on the issues they want to discuss most.
24 Difficulty: High by Personal Use Method Goal Guide group conversations smarter: Get common understandig, listen do different views and do it rela
CollaborationCollaboratively create agendas in real-time.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Lean Coffee. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Reflection board: Whether it’s a kanban board, a whiteboard, or an online tool, team members need somewhere to write down their reflections and order their thoughts.; Traditionally, these types of meetings would occur in an open space in the office. Some teams even choose to hold their group discussion in a coffee shop! These days, more teams opt to do their Lean Coffee meetings over Zoom with the help of an online tool like Parabol.; Reflections: Teams will spend time reflecting or brainstorming on the issues they want to discuss most.; 24 Difficulty: High by Personal Use Method Goal Guide group conversations smarter: Get common understandig, listen do different views and do it rela. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The exercise appears across 3 observed source organizations in the current corpus. (3 sources observed, including Parabol, Miro, SessionLab.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.