Agile Poker guide

Agile Poker is a free story point estimation deck for software teams. Use the browser app on your phone or desktop, or bring printed cards to sprint planning and backlog refinement. Each card has three hints about the work behind the estimate. No account or installation is required for the browser app; JavaScript is required to select and reveal cards. This guide works without JavaScript.

Why I built Agile Poker

I built these cards for my own teams to keep estimation discussions focused on understanding the work. A number alone leaves people guessing what a teammate means by a 3 or an 8. The hints give the team something specific to discuss: what needs learning, which areas are affected, and how much activity is involved.

The deck has nine cards: ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20+, and ?. The smaller set reflects the values my teams used most often. The 20+ card is a prompt to break work down; the question mark lets someone ask for clarification instead of guessing.

The intended result is a shared understanding of the task and an estimate the team can use for planning. The app does not decide whether a story is ready or choose the final estimate for you.

Quick start

1. Open Agile Poker. Each person opens the app on their own device.
2. Read the story together. Clarify the expected result, scope, dependencies, and what counts as done.
3. Choose a card independently, using its hints to assess the work. The app hides your selected value behind the back of a card.
4. Wait for everyone to be ready. On an agreed signal, select Reveal or tap the face-down card. Show your screen to the group.
5. Discuss different estimates before choosing a final value. Ask what assumptions led to the lowest and highest cards.
6. Use Restart Voting to return to the deck for another round or story. After the reveal animation, tapping the face-up card also returns to the deck.

For example, a 2 and an 8 may reflect different assumptions about an API change or testing scope. Clarify those assumptions, then estimate again if needed.

Reading the cards and hints

Each card describes three aspects of the work: skills or learning needed, impact on other areas, and the volume of actions or coordination. Use the hints as discussion prompts and compare them with work your team already understands.

These are relative estimates for your team’s planning. The cards do not convert points into hours or measure an individual’s productivity. Agree on reference stories within your team; another team’s 5 may describe different work.

Using 20+ and ?

If someone plays 20+, look for smaller outcomes the team can deliver and review separately. Estimate those pieces after clarifying their boundaries.

If someone plays ?, ask what is missing. You might need an acceptance criterion, a dependency decision, or a short investigation. A question mark is a useful result when the alternative would be an unsupported number.

Reveal, discuss, and vote again

Keep your choice private until everyone has selected. Revealing together gives each participant a chance to form an estimate before seeing the rest of the team’s answers.

After revealing, talk about the reasoning behind different cards. A shared final value is a team decision; the app does not calculate an average, enforce consensus, or record the result. Save the agreed estimate in your normal planning tool.

Restart Voting clears your selected card and starts another local round. It does not reset anyone else’s device. If you chose the wrong value before revealing, reveal it and restart; there is no separate change-card control in the waiting view.

In-person and remote meetings

The browser app is an individual digital deck. It is designed for people showing cards together in a meeting. There are no shared rooms, invite codes, participant lists, synchronized reveals, or collected team results. Each person controls their own selection and reveal.

For a remote meeting, agree on a reveal signal and show cards through your existing video call or screen sharing. Opening the same app URL on multiple devices does not connect their votes. If you need automatic vote collection, this tool does not provide it.

Fullscreen and keeping the screen awake

Use Fullscreen to give the cards more room. Exit Fullscreen returns to the page. Where supported, Stay Awake requests that the screen remain on; Screen On indicates that the request is active. Select it again to allow the screen to sleep.

Entering fullscreen also requests the screen wake lock; leaving fullscreen releases it. Availability depends on your browser and device. A wake lock requires a secure connection and can be refused or released by the browser, for example when the page is hidden. Keep the app visible and check your device if it still goes to sleep.

Printable Agile Poker cards

For physical cards, start from the Agile Poker overview and use Subscribe & Get PDF to get the deck through the newsletter. The online app can be used immediately without subscribing.

The PDF is designed for A4 printing, with cutting guides and poker-sized cards of approximately 57 × 88 mm. Follow the printing, cutting, and optional lamination tutorial to make your deck. Each participant needs their own set to choose independently and reveal together.

What the app remembers

Your current card and reveal state last while the app remains mounted. Refreshing the page starts again at the deck. There is no saved voting history, session backup, or cross-device synchronization.

The app does not create a server-side team session. The site does use analytics, including card-selection and reveal events; this is not an anonymous voting or confidential ballot system. See the privacy policy for site-wide information.

Ready for a round? Open Agile Poker or return to the Agile Poker overview.