Lean Coffee is an agenda-less and structure meeting wherein participants are tasked to gather and build an agenda. They will also have to start talking to each other. As per the conversations, these are entirely productive and directed due to the reason that the agenda is mainly and democratically generated. In fact, a lot of Lean Coffees are now happening around the world including Stockholm, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, Boulder and a whole lot more.
History
In regard with the history of Lean Coffee, it actually started in the year of 2009, in Seattle. Jeremy Lightsmith and Jim Benson initiated of starting a group that will focus on the discussion of Lean techniques. In this organization, it is to be started without speakers, steering committees and such. They only desire for a group that only relies on people who show up and who want to create and learn.
In terms of how to exactly do it, the format followed is usually simple. It is intentional and it is designed to be necessary for productive and coherent meeting. Setting up a Personal Kanban, Citing the things that need to be discussed and voting and talking are among those steps to be followed.
There must be a list of topics that need to be presented in order for them to get motivated and interested in it. For those people who are interested to begin with a Lean Coffee could just do it the simple way.
Especially if you have started one, they would be happy to help you set up a subdomain on the site. They will also find ways to work with you in the future for the best and most interactive map.
Application
As per the application or the management of Lean Coffee with a distributed team, it is highly emphasized that a tool is needed. You may make use of an online whiteboard. But, it is better to make use of a tool that is built for Lean Coffee.
One of the valuable tools to use consists of Retrium which is a set of facilitation techniques. This is specifically designed for all agile retrospectives. They have their template called Lean Coffee which proved to be incredible and easy to use. This can also be effectively utilized for more applications and not only for retrospectives. This is a lot better to use by enterprises and companies. The good thing about it is that it is free for you to try. But, later on, it will demand for a paid subscription.
Lean Coffee Table is also another simple website designed for the application or distribution of Lean Coffee. This is impressive because it can be used for free. In addition, it is best for casual use and for meetups.
— Slimane Zouggari