How to use this list
In Lean Coffee, the participants set the agenda: everyone writes topics, pitches them briefly, and the group votes on what to discuss. (New to the format? Read what is Lean Coffee first.) So this isn't an agenda to follow. It's a source of inspiration for when people get stuck, when a group is new to the format, or when you want to nudge a session toward a theme.
Every idea below is phrased the way a teammate might actually pitch it. Borrow them, adapt them to your context, or use them as prompts: "Is there a question like this that's been on your mind?"
Team health and collaboration
- How do we disagree without it getting personal?
- What is one thing we could stop doing as a team?
- Do we give each other enough feedback, and is it useful?
- How do we make sure new team members feel included quickly?
- When did we last celebrate something, and should we do it more?
- Who do we depend on outside the team, and how is that going?
- How do we handle it when someone is overloaded?
- Do we trust each other enough to admit mistakes?
Ways of working and process
- Which of our meetings could be shorter, or disappear?
- Is our definition of done still the right one?
- Why do so many items get stuck in review?
- Are we starting too much work and finishing too little?
- How do we deal with urgent requests in the middle of a sprint?
- Do our estimates help us, or are they just a ritual?
- How could our handoffs with other teams be smoother?
- What should we automate first?
Product and customers
- When did each of us last talk to a real customer?
- Which feature do we maintain that nobody really uses?
- How do we know if what we shipped last month worked?
- What is the most common customer complaint, and who owns it?
- Are we building what customers ask for, or what they need?
- How do we decide what goes on the roadmap?
- What would we build if we started the product from scratch today?
- Which metric do we look at most, and is it the right one?
Tech and quality
- Where does our technical debt hurt us most right now?
- Are our tests giving us confidence, or just slowing us down?
- What was our last incident trying to tell us?
- Should we adopt this new tool or framework everyone is talking about?
- How long does it take for a change to reach production, and can we halve it?
- How do we share knowledge so no one is a single point of failure?
- What do we want our code review culture to look like?
- Which part of the system are we afraid to touch, and why?
Learning and growth
- What is one skill each of us wants to build this quarter?
- How do we make time for learning when deadlines are tight?
- Should we try pair or mob programming more often?
- What was the best book, talk or article you came across recently?
- How can we learn more from other teams in the company?
- Would a regular demo or lightning-talk slot be useful?
- What does a good career path look like on this team?
Leadership and strategy
- Do we understand how our work connects to company goals?
- What decisions could be made inside the team instead of above it?
- What would we do differently if we were in management's shoes?
- How transparent should team priorities be to the rest of the company?
- What is the biggest risk to our goals this quarter?
- Are we measuring outcomes or just output?
- How should we respond to the latest reorganization or strategy change?
Remote and hybrid work
- What are our core hours, and do we actually respect them?
- How do we avoid the office people making decisions without the remote people?
- Which conversations should be async, and which need a call?
- How do we notice when a remote colleague is struggling?
- Is our chat helping us focus or constantly interrupting us?
- What should our days in the office be for?
- How do we keep in touch socially when we rarely meet in person?
Fun icebreakers
- What small tool or habit makes your workday better?
- If our team were a band, what would we be called?
- What is a skill you have that nobody at work knows about?
- What was the best team outing or event you have ever been on?
- Which app could you not live without, and why?
- What is the most useful piece of advice you ever got at work?
- If you could swap jobs with anyone in the company for a week, who would it be?
Icebreakers work best as one or two topics mixed into a regular session, not as a whole meeting. They are also a gentle way to introduce Lean Coffee to a group that has never tried it.
How to write a good Lean Coffee topic
Good topics make for good discussions. A few simple rules help:
- Phrase it as a question. "How do we reduce context switching?" invites discussion. "Context switching" is just a label, and people will interpret it differently.
- One idea per note. If a note contains "and", it's probably two topics. Split them so each can be voted on separately.
- Keep it short. Aim for a single line that fits on a sticky note or a card. The details come out in the pitch.
- Make it open, not loaded. "Why is QA always late?" puts people on the defensive. "What slows down testing at the end of the sprint?" gets a better conversation.
- Make it relevant to the room. A topic only a single person can answer is better handled in a one-on-one.
- Pitch it in one or two sentences. Explain why you care, not what the answer is. The discussion comes after the vote.
How to seed a first session
A group's first Lean Coffee is where a blank board hurts most. Some ways to get past it:
- Explain the format in 60 seconds. Topics, pitches, votes, timeboxes, keep-going vote. That's enough.
- Open topic gathering before the meeting. Send the board a day early so people can add questions when they think of them.
- Share a handful of examples from the lists above, picked to match your group. Five or six is plenty; more and people just vote on yours.
- Add one or two topics yourself, but no more than anyone else. The point is that the group owns the agenda.
- Give a theme if the group needs one. "Anything about how we work together" is broad enough to stay open and narrow enough to get started.
- Give silent writing time. Three to five minutes of quiet beats a brainstorm where the first speaker sets the tone.
- Keep the first timeboxes short, around five minutes, so people see several topics move through the board.
After the session, keep leftover topics for next time. A board that already has a few topics on it makes the second session much easier to start. For more on running the meeting itself, see how to facilitate a Lean Coffee. If your team is distributed, running a remote Lean Coffee covers async gathering and online voting, and if you want to use them in a retro, see Lean Coffee vs. retrospective.
Collecting topics in LeanBrew
In LeanBrew, the Gather phase is where everyone adds topics, and you can open it before the meeting so the board fills up asynchronously. Guests join with a link by typing their name, no account needed. Each person then spends a few beans in the Vote phase, with votes private until the reveal, and topics you don't get to roll over to the next session with their votes reset. You can try it free for 30 days.
Frequently asked questions
What are good Lean Coffee topics?
Good Lean Coffee topics are short, open questions that matter to several people in the room, such as "Which of our meetings could be shorter?" or "Where does technical debt hurt us most?" One idea per note works best.
How many topics should each person bring to a Lean Coffee?
There is no fixed number, but one to three topics per person is typical. With a larger group, fewer topics each keeps pitching and voting quick.
Should Lean Coffee topics be phrased as questions?
Yes, where possible. A question makes it clear what the discussion is about and invites answers, while a single-word label means different things to different people.
What if nobody has topics for a Lean Coffee?
Open topic gathering a day or two before the meeting, share a few example questions, and give a few minutes of silent writing time at the start. You can also suggest a broad theme to get people going.
Can Lean Coffee be used for discussion topics in regular team meetings?
Yes. Many teams use a short Lean Coffee slot in a regular team meeting to pick discussion topics democratically. Dot-voting and timeboxes keep it focused even in 20 or 30 minutes.
Run your next Lean Coffee in LeanBrew
Topics, bean voting, timeboxes and minutes in one link. Guests join without an account.