Timeboxing Estimation Meetings
Our planning sessions run 4+ hours. How do you timebox effectively without rushing important discussions?
5-2-1 rule: 5 minutes per story maximum, 2 minutes for discussion after reveal, 1 minute to decide. Use visible countdown timer on screen. If no consensus after 2 minutes, highest estimate wins or defer to refinement.
Sounds brutal but we went from 4 hours to 90 minutes and estimate quality actually improved - forces clarity.
Cap total planning time: 2 hours for 2-week sprint, no exceptions. If you don't finish all stories, the unestimated ones go back to refinement. This forces PO to prioritize what actually needs estimating. We used to estimate 50 stories, now we estimate the top 15 that might get pulled. Way more efficient.
Use a "parking lot" ruthlessly. Any discussion that goes tangential gets parked for after the meeting. Keep parking lot visible, actually address items later. Stops the "oh by the way" derailments that eat time.
Two-round max rule. First reveal, discuss outliers, second vote. If still no consensus, tech lead decides or story gets "too uncertain" spike. Don't do 3rd, 4th rounds. Diminishing returns after round 2.