Free online planning pokerfor agile teams
Planning poker lets a team estimate story points or difficulty without anchoring on the first opinion. Create a public room and share its link. Teammates choose cards in private, then reveal the spread together.
Fibonacci fits story points. T-shirt sizes make rough triage quick, while a custom deck keeps the scale your team already uses. Nobody needs an account, and every room expires after one day.
Once the estimate is set, compare it with the sprint capacity calculator. Check the sprint velocity calculator. Bring the result to your next sprint retrospective.
How it works
- Share one link
- Send the room URL. Teammates join with a display name.
- Vote privately
- A picked card marks someone ready while their estimate stays hidden.
- Reveal together
- Show every card at once. Talk through the outliers before resetting for another item.
What is planning poker?
Planning poker is a team estimation method that keeps early estimates from steering everyone else. Each person picks a card privately. Once every card appears, the team talks through the differences and agrees on a shared size.
How to run planning poker online
- Add your name and the backlog item or decision the team needs to estimate.
- Pick a deck: Fibonacci, T-shirt, or custom.
- Create the room, then send its temporary link to everyone taking part in the estimate.
- Everyone picks independently while the cards stay hidden.
- Reveal every card together. Ask the people holding the highest and lowest cards to explain the assumptions behind their choices to the rest of the group.
- Clarify the item and vote again if needed. Reset when you are ready for the next item.
Fibonacci, T-shirt, or custom cards?
Fibonacci cards suit story points because the gaps widen as size and uncertainty grow. T-shirt sizes are quicker for rough grouping. Use a custom deck when the team already shares a scale, and keep its precision close to the evidence available.
What the discussion should uncover
A wide spread gives the team something useful to investigate. Different cards may point to a hidden dependency or different quality expectations. They can also expose operational work or unfamiliar technology, while a different definition of done may sit underneath the disagreement. Clarify assumptions before averaging the cards or pressing for agreement.
Frequently asked questions
What is planning poker?
Planning poker gives the team a shared way to estimate work. Everyone picks a card privately, then reveals at the same time so the team can discuss differences before agreeing on relative size or difficulty.
Why are planning poker cards hidden?
Hidden cards reduce anchoring because each person forms an independent view before seeing anyone else's choice.
Which planning poker deck should a team use?
Use Fibonacci for story points when uncertainty and the size of the work tend to grow together. T-shirt cards help with early, rough grouping. A custom deck fits a scale that the team already knows and can explain consistently.
Is this planning poker tool free?
Yes. HeyRetro rooms are free to create and expire automatically after one day. Participants join without accounts.
Turn estimates into a focused sprint
Review delivery on a shared retrospective board. Agree on the improvements that matter, then track the next action with the team.