SprintVotes

What Is Planning Poker?

Planning poker (also called scrum poker) is a simple way for agile teams to estimate the effort of upcoming work together. Everyone votes at the same time using numbered cards, so the estimate reflects what the whole team thinks, not just the loudest person in the room.

The short version

A team gathers to estimate a list of tasks (in scrum, these are user stories). For each task, every member privately picks a card representing how much effort they think it will take. When everyone has chosen, all cards are revealed simultaneously. If the estimates agree, the team records the number and moves on. If they differ wildly, the highest and lowest voters explain their reasoning, the team discusses, and everyone votes again. It is fast, collaborative, and surprisingly accurate.

How planning poker works, step by step

  1. Pick a task. The product owner reads out the next user story and answers any clarifying questions.
  2. Everyone votes privately. Each team member picks a card without showing it, so no one is influenced by anyone else.
  3. Reveal at once. All cards flip over at the same time so the team sees the spread of opinions instantly.
  4. Discuss the outliers. If the lowest and highest votes are far apart, those people explain what they see that others might not.
  5. Vote again until you agree. Repeat until the team lands on a shared estimate, then move to the next story.

What the cards mean: estimation decks

Planning poker estimates relative effort. You judge how big a task is compared to the others, instead of guessing hours. The card values you choose shape how the team thinks. These are the decks SprintVotes supports:

Fibonacci

0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89. The most popular scale. The widening gaps capture the reality that larger tasks are harder to estimate precisely.

Modified Fibonacci

0, ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100. Rounds the higher numbers for easier conversation about big items.

T-shirt sizes

XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL. Great for teams that find numbers too precise and prefer rough buckets, especially early in a project.

Custom deck

Define your own values to match how your team already works. Use hours, days, or any scale you like.

Why teams use planning poker

  • →It removes bias. Hidden votes stop junior members from simply echoing the senior estimate.
  • →It surfaces hidden knowledge. When estimates differ, the discussion reveals risks and edge cases the team hadn't considered.
  • →It builds shared ownership. The whole team agrees on the estimate, so the commitment is collective.
  • →It is fast and engaging. Compared to open-floor estimation, planning poker keeps everyone involved and avoids endless debate.

Story points vs. hours

Planning poker usually estimates in story points instead of hours. A story point is a rough measure of how big and complex a task is. Hours feel precise, but they are unreliable, because the same task takes different people different amounts of time. Story points avoid that problem. The team only has to agree that one task is about twice as big as another. After a few sprints you learn how many points your team finishes each sprint. This is called velocity, and it makes planning much more reliable than guessing hours.

Running planning poker online

Planning poker started with physical card decks around a table, but most teams are now remote or hybrid. An online planning poker tool gives everyone a shared, real-time board: votes stay hidden until the reveal, results appear instantly, and nobody needs to be in the same room. SprintVotes does exactly this. It is free, there is no signup, no paywall, and nothing is stored after the session ends.

Try planning poker with your team

Start a free session in seconds. Pick a deck, share the link, and start estimating. No account needed.