What is big room planning?

Every once in a while, you need to get everyone in the same room. Big room planning is a method for gathering all relevant stakeholders across an organization to collaborate on the big picture. Big room planning generally takes place once a quarter and can involve a high number of people—for some organizations, this meeting can involve 100-plus participants, whether that’s in a physical room or in a virtual meeting.

Benefits of a virtual big room planning template

Big room planning is best suited for tackling a significant task that spans multiple teams and needs to stay on a timeline. For a complex project like this, gathering everyone together helps all team members understand the big picture so they can contribute to the project’s success.

The meeting also gives everyone a chance to contribute to the project’s planning. This means that leadership will get a more accurate look at what’s ahead with everyone’s input, and the planned timeline will account for possible roadblocks.

While big room planning has traditionally been done in a physical meeting, you can still accomplish the same purpose in a virtual meeting. This template can help everyone stay engaged and aligned during the meeting instead of risking participants getting lost or losing focus.

How to use the big room planning template in Lucidspark

Begin by gathering everyone you need to participate, from stakeholders to workers across teams who touch your project. To make your virtual big room planning meeting run smoothly, make sure to give everyone plenty of notice, and be mindful of any time zone differences if you have team members in different locations. You can also make the meeting easier by integrating Lucidspark with Zoom and Microsoft Teams for a seamless experience.

Start the meeting by stating your goal and release date so everyone knows what you’re working towards. Add a timeline with the dates of each sprint, and collaborate with your group to write what needs to be done on sticky notes and cards to plan your sprints. You can keep this timeline up to date after the meeting by revisiting it between sprints and adjusting as needed.

As you fill out the template, use freehand drawing and lines to connect important tasks between teams. This will help everyone visualize how the tasks fit together.

To get the most out of the big room planning template, integrate Lucidspark with Jira, Azure DevOps, or Smartsheet. You can use Lucidspark Cards to import your backlog items and use the two-way sync to keep both the template and your project management software up to date.