This Hack Let Daily Pick Plan Our Sprint—We Cut Planning in Half
We tried something ridiculous: we let Daily Pick own sprint planning for one cycle. Instead of the usual 60-minute session, we ran a hybrid ritual where the spinner decided the order, priority, and blocker focus for every participant. The result: half the time, twice the clarity, and zero passive nods.
Here’s the structure that made it work:
- Pre-meeting spin: The Decision Wheel pulled three backlog priorities and assigned each to a pair. That pair owned the summary, refinement, and pairing notes for those stories before the planning call.
- Live Trap! for blockers: When we hit a blocker, Trap! chose a teammate to name the emotional weight behind it. The Decision Wheel then immediately selected someone to co-mentor the follow-up, so escalations moved faster than the next agenda item.
- Post-spin recap: Daily Pick posted the final spins plus who spoke when, so the PM could see whether any domain was underrepresented. That recap also fed into Planning Poker Hub so estimates stayed anchored to who actually scoped the work.
We still debated tech debt and ramped up code review cycles, but the “who goes first” and “who owns this” questions disappeared. The spin kept us honest: if the same person spun the Decision Wheel on multiple blockers, the team noticed and rotated responsibilities.
Want to try it? Pick your next retro, replace the “who speaks next?” question with a Decision Wheel spin, and let Trap! pull in whatever tension is simmering. If you need a fresh agenda, Hybrid All Hands Playbook is full of prompts to extend the vibe.