Choose a session format
A format decides three things at once: the question you put in front of the room, how the board is divided, and how you spend the time. Choosing one when you create the board means your preparation is already there when you open it — the question is written, the columns exist, and there is a run sheet you can follow or ignore.
Every format is a starting point. Rename a column, rewrite the question, change the timing: the board is yours from the moment it exists.
What you’ll learn
- Which format fits the session you have in mind.
- What the board fills in for you when you choose one.
- Which settings make each format work.
- How to adjust the run sheet so it matches the time you actually have.
What a format gives you
Choose a format when you create the board. Turn on Start a workshop first: the list then shows the formats built around a room, and hides the starting points meant for work you keep up over weeks.
Every format fills in four things:
- The question. The central instruction everyone sees at the top of the board. It is filled in for you, and you can rewrite it before or during the session.
- The columns. The structure the room writes into. Some formats use an open grid instead.
- A run sheet. A suggested timing for the session, visible only to you.
- A suggested number of votes. Preselected in the voting bar when you start a round. It is a suggestion; you choose.
Formats that vote also switch dot-voting on for the board, so the voting bar is there when your run sheet says it is time to vote. One exception worth knowing: if you turn an existing board into a workshop, its own settings stay as they are — check Board settings before you start.
Empty columns show a faint example note so nobody has to guess what a good contribution looks like. It disappears as soon as a real note arrives, and it is never part of your result.
Retrospective
Use it when a team has just finished something — a sprint, a project, a busy month — and needs to decide what to change before the next one starts.
The board gives you three columns (Went well, To improve, Actions), a question about what helped and what slowed the team down, and five votes per person.
Make it work by collecting in silence first. Start a silent brainstorm, let everyone write for ten minutes, then reveal everything at once. Without that, the first three notes decide what the session is about.
Watch out for a session that stays in the first column. Going well is pleasant to read and can absorb twenty minutes; the reason you are here is the third column.
Start / Stop / Continue
Use it when you want the shortest possible retrospective, or when the group is new to this kind of session. Three questions are more concrete than an open one.
The board gives you three columns (Start, Stop, Continue), a question that names all three, and three votes per person.
Make it work by keeping notes concrete. “Start: a five-minute check before we deploy” is an action; “Start: better communication” is a wish.
Watch out for an empty Stop column. Stopping something is the hardest of the three and the one that frees up time, so ask for it explicitly.
Brainstorm
Use it when you need volume before you need judgement: names, angles, solutions, anything where the tenth idea is better than the first.
The board gives you an open grid without columns, a question that asks for quantity first, and five votes per person.
Make it work by writing in silence and revealing together. Close input while you group what belongs together, then open a voting round on what is left.
Watch out for revealing too early. Once the room can read along, people write variations of what is already there instead of what they were about to think of.
Prioritising
Use it when everything is urgent and the group needs to agree on what comes first.
The board gives you three columns (Now, Next, Later), a question that asks what is on the table, and five votes per person.
Make it work by collecting everything in Now first and only then dividing it. Voting is not a step in this session — it is the session, so leave room for the discussion that follows it.
Watch out for a full Now column at the end. If everything is still urgent, nothing was prioritised; deciding what moves to Later is the outcome you came for.
Feedback session
Use it when you want honest input on your own work, a proposal or a way of working, and you want it from people who might hold back.
The board gives you three columns (Appreciations, Suggestions, Questions), a question that asks for one point per note, and three votes per person.
Make it work by turning on Hide author names on notes before you start, and by saying that you did. People still manage their own notes and you can still moderate; while it is on, nobody sees who wrote what — not even you. It stays on until you switch it off, so say that you will leave it on and then do that.
Watch out for reading everything out loud at speed. Read the questions column last and answer it properly; that is where the useful discomfort lives.
Blank
Use it when you know exactly what you want to do. A blank board is a workshop with your own question, your own columns and your own timing — the format that gets out of the way.
Adjust the run sheet
The run sheet is the suggested timing for your session. You find it under Workshop → Run the session, and it also sits in the bar at the top of the board so you can read it while you facilitate. Only you see it.
Change it by editing the text: one step per line, with the time and the step separated by a vertical bar.
5 min | explain the question and how we work
15 min | everyone writes on their own
5 min | reveal and read together
A line without a bar becomes a step without a time, which is useful for “if there is time left”. Empty the field and save to go back to the suggestion for your format.
Adjusting it is the normal case, not the exception. Most sessions are shorter than the suggestion, and a run sheet that does not match your session is one you stop reading.
Formats for a board without a session
Two starting points are not sessions and appear when you create a board without turning on the workshop mode:
- Kanban — To do, Doing and Done, for work that moves through stages over weeks.
- Week planner — a column for every weekday.
Both are ordinary private boards. See organise your work for the layouts, tags and due dates, and keep a board going for what to do with them after the first week.
Good to know
- A format changes nothing that cannot be changed back. Rename columns, add your own, switch between a grid and columns, rewrite the question.
- Choosing a format is not a plan. The board still needs you to open the room, watch the clock and close the session.
- The run sheet and the timer are separate. The run sheet is your notes; the timer is what the room sees.
- Workshop mode is available with Club Facilitator and Chosen Few. Everyone you invite takes part for free.
- Duplicating a board keeps its format, including a run sheet you adjusted — useful when the same session comes back every sprint.