How to use Story Point Poker
A practical walkthrough for hosts and players — from first room to reveal.
Before you start
You only need a modern browser and a way to share a link. No install. Guests do not need an account. Optional accounts are available when enabled on the deployment (login, saved display name, ad-free plan).
New to the practice itself? Read What is planning poker? first, then come back here to run a session.
Session flow
1. Start a room
On the home page, choose Start a new room. Guests enter a display name; if you are logged in, your account name is used. You can set an optional session name (for example “Sprint 24 planning”). The app creates a six-character invite code and opens the live room.
2. Invite your team
Share the room code or the full link (/room/CODE) in Slack, Teams, email, or chat. Teammates open the link or enter the code on the home page. Guests type a name on the join screen; logged-in users join with their profile name.
3. Set the story (host)
As host, set an optional story title so everyone knows what they are estimating — a ticket ID, user story summary, or spike description. Keep it short enough to read at a glance.
4. Vote
Each participant picks a card from the deck (by default: 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ?, and a coffee break card). Click the same card again to deselect. The participant list shows whether someone has voted (… waiting, ✓ voted) without showing the number until reveal.
5. Optional timer
Hosts can start a countdown (30s / 1m / 2m / 5m) so discussion does not drag. You can also auto-reveal when the timer ends if you want a hard stop.
6. Reveal and discuss
When enough people have voted, the host reveals. Everyone sees values, who voted what, a simple chart, and an average. Discuss outliers — that conversation is the point of planning poker — then agree on a team estimate.
7. New round
Host chooses New round to clear votes for the next backlog item. Repeat until the session is done.
8. Host tools
Transfer host if someone else should run the rest of the meeting. Nudge non-voters with a gentle ping if they are idle. Leave the room when you are finished; if you are the last person, the room is cleaned up.
Tips for better estimates
- Align on a reference story before the first vote so “5” means the same relative size to everyone.
- Let people vote before debating numbers. Reveal first, discuss outliers second — that is the anti-anchoring design.
- Use “?” when the story is unclear; fix the acceptance criteria, then re-vote instead of forcing a fake number.
- Prefer relative sizing over hours. Story points track complexity and uncertainty, not calendar time.
- Keep rooms small enough for discussion. Very large groups may need breakouts or a single estimator per specialty.
Leaving and reconnecting
Leave room removes you immediately and can promote a new host if needed. Refreshing the page does not leave — so a reload is safe mid-session. If someone closes the browser and stays idle, others may prune that ghost after a short timeout so the participant list stays accurate.
Ads and ad-free
Free rooms show ads beside the session. If the host (or you, when logged in on ad-free) has an active ad-free plan, room ads are hidden according to product rules. Details live on the Go ad-free page. Home and help pages stay ad-free by design.