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nuAgility Glossary

What is Lean Coffee?

Lean Coffee is a meeting format that is used to facilitate productive conversations and decision-making. It is based on the principles of Lean Manufacturing, which emphasizes the elimination of waste and the continuous improvement of processes.


In a Lean Coffee meeting, participants write down their own agenda items on post-it notes and then stick them on a board. These items are then discussed in a round-robin fashion, with each person having a set amount of time to speak. During the discussion, attendees can vote on the topics they want to discuss further, and the most popular topics are discussed first.

The goal of Lean Coffee is to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to share their ideas and concerns, and that the conversation stays focused on the most important issues. It also encourages active participation and engagement from all attendees.


Lean Coffee can be used for a variety of purposes, such as team meetings, project planning, and problem-solving sessions. It can be also used as a way to facilitate conversations in remote teams and virtual meetings as well. It is a simple and effective way to make meetings more productive and efficient, by ensuring that the most important topics are discussed first and that everyone has a chance to participate.


Want to talk through how this shows up in real teams and organizations? Join the Agile Community Network, nuAgility's free live community event and podcast, where practitioners discuss topics like this in the context of real work.

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