Top Sprint Planning Templates for Product Managers

Sprint planning is a key activity for product managers, streamlining the path from concept to deliverable by breaking down work into manageable sprints. This process facilitates clearer communication, better team collaboration, and more accurate goal setting. A Sprint Planning template in Notion can further ease this process by providing a structured and repeatable framework, ensuring that teams can focus on the work at hand without getting bogged down by organizational logistics.

Before you dive into crafting your very own Sprint Planning template, it might be helpful to explore these carefully selected examples below to simplify your approach.

What Should Sprint Planning Templates Include?

Choosing the right Sprint Planning template can streamline your project management process and enhance team productivity. Here are key components to look for in a high-quality template:

Goal Definition - A section dedicated to defining the sprint goals clearly. This helps ensure all team members are aligned and understand the primary objectives.
Task Breakdown - The template should allow for detailed task breakdowns, making it easier to assign responsibilities and estimate timelines effectively.
Resource Allocation - It's crucial to have a component that outlines the resources available for the sprint, including team member availability and tools.
Risk Assessment - A good template includes a method for identifying potential risks and their mitigation strategies, ensuring proactive problem management.

Selecting a template with these components will help you manage sprints more effectively, fostering a productive and collaborative environment.

What Should Sprint Planning Templates Avoid?

Choosing the right Sprint Planning template is crucial for streamlining your project management processes. However, not all templates are created equal, and some features can actually hinder your team's progress rather than help it.

Overly Complex Layouts: Avoid templates with complicated structures that can confuse team members. Simplicity in design ensures that everyone understands their tasks and deadlines clearly.
Fixed Time Slots: Templates that rigidly define time allocations for each task can restrict flexibility. Teams should be able to adjust their timelines based on real-time progress and challenges.
Non-Collaborative Features: Steer clear of templates that do not support collaboration. Sprint planning is a team effort, and the ability for multiple users to edit and update in real-time is essential.

Selecting a template that avoids these pitfalls will facilitate a more efficient and adaptive sprint planning process, ensuring better outcomes for your projects.

1Product Backlog w/ DoR and DoD

Get started with your project with this straight-forward Product Backlog template with pre-defined Definition of Ready and Definition of Done. Your project doesn't have to be a software or something complex in order to use this. It can fit to any application or use case, whether for personal or business purposes. You will be guided what data to populate in Epic, PBI, User Story, Acceptance Criteria, etc., based on the samples provided.

A template preview for Product Backlog w/ DoR and DoD

2Issue Tracker

Track engineering projects of any shape or size with this template. For teams that use the Agile method, you can break down each project into tasks, prioritize your backlog, then organize tasks into sprints. Filter by status, priority, and team to view your work any way you like. Plus, connect your other essential tools like Github, Figma, Slack, and more to truly keep all your work in one place.

3Small Design Agency Task Management

This template helps to organise incoming work from the client account management teams into a creative design team at a small design agency. Often there are competing creative deadlines across account management teams which can lead to miss management of task priorities. On this template both the management team and creative team have their own workspace which is connected together, providing a way to manage creative tasks.

A template preview for Small Design Agency Task Management

4Notion Engineering Dashboard

The Notion Engineering Dashboard is an easy-to-use workspace for you to track your tasks, stories, epics, sprints, and meetings. With this Notion setup you can cut out clutter and focus on your highest priority tasks, without losing track of important details.

A template preview for Notion Engineering Dashboard

5Simple Roadmap

Use this template to track all of your project work. Organize your projects by epics, sprints, tasks, and bugs. You can view the database different ways to see projects by status, engineer, or product manager.

Save time by using the templates made for each type of task, where you can add more as needed, as well as custom properties to track important information.

6Sprint Planning Meeting

Our Sprint Planning Meetings template is a time-efficient tool designed to streamline your sprint planning. With a single click, you can generate a new sprint meeting entry marked with today's date. The template includes structured sections for reviewing the last sprint, planning the upcoming sprint, and fostering discussion. You can also conveniently link to the associated sprint. This organized and simple text-based approach keeps your sprint planning focused and effective.

A template preview for Sprint Planning Meeting

7Definition of Ready Checklist

The Definition of Ready (DoR) is a crucial concept in agile development that outlines the criteria a user story must meet before it can be implemented. This checklist will provide teams with a comprehensive framework for effectively defining the DoR and by following it, teams can ensure that user stories are well-prepared, reducing ambiguity and improving efficiency.

A template preview for Definition of Ready Checklist

8Weekly Sprints

Are you someone who wants to plan out your week ahead? Or someone who wants to track their weekly habits?

Here's a simple to use weekly planner, where you can set your goals for the week in one of the 4 categories: Personal, Professional, Health and Social. Add your TODOs for the week in those columns or track your habits.

You can easily add a new week with the button and take a look at your older weeks' progress in the History section as well. Personalise it as you like and make it work for you.

9Action Plan

The Action Plan Template helps you to create action plans easily.

By creating an action plan you’ll able to gain a clear understanding of your short-term objectives are.

By creating an action plan you’ll be able to streamline your efforts and stay focused on what truly matters.

10Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

It helps to create an work flow in IT departments

A template preview for Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

Closing Thoughts

Utilizing these templates streamlines the planning process, ensuring that all team members are aligned with the project goals. This clarity leads to increased productivity and more efficient use of resources.

By adopting these templates, you can significantly reduce the time spent on planning. This allows more time for execution and innovation. Start implementing these tools today to see tangible improvements in your project outcomes.

What is a Velocity?

Velocity is a measure of the amount of work a team can tackle during a single sprint and is calculated at the end of the sprint by totaling the points for all fully completed user stories.

What is a Burndown Chart?

A burndown chart is a graphical representation of work left to do versus time. It is very useful in sprint planning to track the progress of the sprint and predict the likelihood of achieving the sprint goal.

What is a Sprint Goal?

A sprint goal is a single, concise statement drafted by the scrum team that defines what the team plans to achieve during the sprint. It provides guidance to the team on why it is building the increment.