Scrum Poker Facilitator One-Pager

A condensed facilitation script for running a Scrum Poker session - print it, keep it next to your laptop, and follow it round by round. For the full reasoning behind every step, see the complete Scrum Poker guide.

Before the session

• Backlog items have acceptance criteria. No criteria means no estimate - refine first.
• One facilitator is assigned, usually the Scrum Master.
• Everyone can vote simultaneously - a physical deck for co-located teams, an online room for remote or hybrid ones.

The round, step by step

1. Read the story and its acceptance criteria aloud. Everyone should be estimating the same thing.
2. Everyone privately picks a card. No discussion, no "this feels like a..." out loud - that's an anchor.
3. Reveal all cards at the same time.
4. Matching or near-matching votes? Record the estimate, move to the next story.
5. Wide spread? Ask the highest voter to explain first, then the lowest. Never average votes to skip the conversation.
6. Re-vote once. Still wide after discussion? The story isn't ready - park it for refinement instead of forcing a number.

The facilitator's five jobs

• Guard the silence before the reveal. The instant someone says "I think this is a...", the round is compromised.
• Ask outliers, not the room. "Why did you vote high?" to one person gets a real answer; "does anyone want to explain the spread?" gets silence.
• Timebox visibly. A shared, visible timer keeps a two-minute discussion from becoming ten.
• Know when to stop voting. Two rounds of real disagreement is normal. A third round rarely converges - park the story.
• Record the result immediately. Estimate, spread, and any notes - written down before memory fades.

The five mistakes that derail a session

1. Letting someone speak before the vote.
2. Treating the estimate as a delivery commitment.
3. Skipping re-estimation after a story's true size changes mid-sprint.
4. Estimating a story with no acceptance criteria.
5. Averaging instead of discussing a wide spread.

Who's in the room

Full etiquette per role and team-size guidance: the complete Scrum Poker guide.

Run it now

Create a free Scrum Poker room - no sign-up, every deck type included, up to 50 participants.