How to choose a planning poker tool for client projects

Monday morning. First sprint planning with a new client team. You send the link to the tool you've been using internally for two years.

Twenty minutes later, three people don't have an account, one never got the verification email, and the product owner is waiting for IT to approve the external service.

You haven't estimated a single story yet.

I ran into this on a consulting engagement in the pharmaceutical industry. That day, I realized I had been choosing planning poker tools on the wrong criteria.

The first criterion isn't a feature

There are around twenty online planning poker tools. Fibonacci, T-Shirt sizing, timer, export, Jira integration, admin roles. On those points, they're roughly the same.

Where they differ: can your team join a session without creating an account?

That's the zeroth criterion. Check it before comparing anything else.

With an internal team, you solve it once. On a client project, every new participant, every invited stakeholder, every discovery session with a team you don't know yet: it starts over. And you have zero control over the machines, the IT policies, or the patience of the people in the room.

A room code in Slack, one click, a username. If the tool asks for more than that, it's asking for too much.

The second criterion: mobile without an install

Hybrid meeting room. Three people on-site, five remote. Remote participants often have their phone nearby, not always a laptop available during the meeting.

A tool that requires a mobile app installed loses half your room before you've started.

The quick test: can someone join the session from Safari on iPhone in under thirty seconds? If yes, move on to the next criterion.

The features that change a session

Once the first two criteria are met, features matter. But in a specific order.

Simultaneous vote reveal. This is the core mechanic of planning poker: no one sees anyone else's card until the reveal. Tools that show votes in real time break the exercise. Anchoring bias kicks in, estimates converge artificially, and the discussion that follows loses its point.

Per-story timer. Not essential, but useful for keeping pace on long backlogs. Ten minutes per story maximum; otherwise the session derails on the first item.

Card decks. Fibonacci (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…) for most Scrum teams. T-Shirt sizing (XS, S, M, L, XL) for teams estimating by size rather than complexity, often on projects with heterogeneous deliverables. Check that the tool covers the scale your team already uses.

Multi-admin and transfer. On a consulting engagement, you're not always available for every session. Being able to hand off the facilitator role to another team member, without reconfiguring anything, is what makes the tool work after you leave.

The features that don't matter on client projects

Jira integration. Convenient internally. On client engagements, you often don't have access to their instance, or the permissions are too limited for the integration to be useful.

Multi-session history. Useful for a team that's been using the same tool for six months. At the start of an engagement, nobody looks at session history.

Team accounts and workspaces. If it requires invitations and team management, you've reintroduced the zeroth criterion problem through the back door.

The checklist, in order

Before choosing a planning poker tool for a client project:

1. Join without an account: link + username, no sign-up
2. Mobile without an app: works in the phone browser
3. Simultaneous reveal: cards hidden until the reveal
4. Decks available: Fibonacci and T-Shirt at minimum
5. Multi-admin: role transfer without friction
6. Optional timer: useful, not blocking

If the first five are checked, the tool can work on a client project. Everything else is comfort.

pokrr checks all five. Free, no account, works on mobile, simultaneous reveal, Fibonacci + T-Shirt + custom decks, multi-admin with transfer.

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Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between Fibonacci and T-Shirt sizing in planning poker?

Fibonacci (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…) is used to estimate complexity in story points. The gaps between values grow with size, which reflects the increasing uncertainty on larger stories. T-Shirt sizing (XS, S, M, L, XL) is more accessible for teams new to estimation, or for deliverables that are hard to quantify in points. Both work: the choice depends on the team's agile maturity and existing vocabulary.

How many participants can join an online planning poker session?

There's no hard limit on most free tools. In practice, a session works well with 4 to 12 participants. Beyond that, the discussions after card reveal become hard to facilitate, especially remote.

Can you run planning poker without a scrum master?

Yes. The facilitator role can rotate within the team. What changes: someone needs to manage the discussion when estimates diverge significantly, and someone needs to decide when to move to the next story. These are facilitation skills, not necessarily tied to the scrum master role.