Remote Planning Poker - Tips for Distributed Teams
We just went fully remote and our planning poker sessions are a mess. People multitask, timezone differences mean not everyone can join, and the energy is just... gone. What tools and techniques actually work for remote estimation?
Been fully remote for 3 years. Three non-negotiables: (1) Cameras ON for everyone - multitasking drops 80%. (2) Use async estimation for initial votes, sync meeting ONLY for discussion of outliers. (3) Timebox discussions to 5 minutes max per story.
We use PlanningPokerOnline.com and went from 3-hour sessions to 90 minutes. The key is async-first, sync for exceptions only.
The timezone issue is real. We have people in SF, London, and Bangalore. Solution: Record async video estimates. Each dev watches the story demo video, records a 2-minute video explaining their estimate and why.
Product owner compiles, we only meet synchronously for stories with >3 point variance. Cuts meeting time 70%. Uses Loom for video recording.
Try FreeScumPoker or Scrum Poker Online. Both have built-in timers that auto-reveal votes. Game-changer for keeping energy up. Also: start with a 2-minute icebreaker. Sounds silly but it brings back the human connection that's missing on Zoom.
Controversial take: embrace the timezone split. Let the US team estimate US-hours stories, EU team estimates their stories. Only overlap stories that genuinely need both perspectives. We do 3 shorter sessions per week instead of 1 long all-hands torture session.
The energy problem is about facilitation. Use polls, reactions, Zoom breakout rooms for discussions. We do 'silent writing' first - everyone types their estimate reasoning in chat before revealing. Creates accountability and prevents groupthink.