Artifact: Planning-Poker Debiasing Rules
Planning-poker facilitation rules -- exercises co-06.
| Rule | Bias it neutralizes | How |
|---|---|---|
| Blind reveal: every participant privately selects a card; all reveal simultaneously on a countdown. | Anchoring | No one's spoken number can pull anyone else's guess before their own is locked in. |
| Outlier discussion before re-vote: when the highest and lowest estimate differ by more than one Fibonacci step, the highest and lowest estimators explain their reasoning first, then the group re-votes. | Authority bias | The most senior person's number is treated as one estimate to explain, not an automatic answer -- and it is the outliers, not the loudest voice, who speak first. |
| Quietest-first: when discussion is needed, the facilitator asks the most junior or quietest team member to explain their reasoning before anyone more senior speaks. | Authority bias | Prevents the discussion itself from anchoring around whoever is used to speaking first. |
Last updated July 13, 2026