Planning is discovery at a longer time horizon. The techniques teams use to understand what to build also tell them when to build it, in what order, and how to connect daily work to yearly strategy. This is the one-page reference.
The onion
Each layer of planning answers a different question, operates on a different cadence, and uses different techniques. The outer layers change slowly. The inner layers change fast. Each inner layer should be able to explain how it connects to the layer outside it.
Layer by layer
| Layer | Cadence | Question | Techniques | Worked example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vision | Rarely (trigger-based) | Why do customers hire us? What business are we in? | JTBD, Business Model Canvas | From Weekly Habits to Yearly Vision: the board conversation |
| Year | Annual | What does success look like in 12 months? | Impact Mapping, Assumption Mapping, BMC refresh | From Weekly Habits to Yearly Vision: filling the gaps |
| Quarter | Quarterly | What bets are we making? What themes for each squad? | Impact Mapping, Wardley Mapping, Now/Next/Later | Now/Next/Later, cross-squad quarterly planning |
| Sprint | Fortnightly | What are we delivering, and have we understood it well enough? | Example Mapping, ensemble programming, threat modelling | A first sprint planning |
| Day | Daily | What am I working on and is it the correct approach? | Standups, assumptions check, Cynefin | The daily standup |
How the layers evolve with scale
The planning onion grows as the organisation grows. You don’t need all layers on day one.
| Team size | Layers you need | Worked example |
|---|---|---|
| 1-5 people | Day + Sprint | A first sprint cadence with a small team and a single near-term outcome: Introducing the sprint |
| 5-10 people | + Quarter | Too many insights, not enough capacity, the team needs a way to choose: Now / Next / Later |
| 10-25 people, multiple teams | + Cross-team quarterly | Two squads, surprise dependencies, and the planning rhythm that fixes them: Quarterly planning across squads |
| 25+ people, multiple teams | + Year + Vision | Great habits but no shared strategy, the trigger to add the outermost layers: Filling the gaps |
Key principles
Planning isn’t predicting. Quarterly themes aren’t commitments to ship specific features. They’re commitments to pursue specific outcomes. When discovery and plan conflict, discovery wins.
Each layer wraps the ones inside it. A sprint goal should connect to the quarterly theme. A quarterly theme should connect to the yearly Impact Map. If a piece of work can’t trace a line back to a higher layer, ask why it’s being done.
Start with the layer you’re missing. If your team has great daily habits but no sprint rhythm, add sprints. If you have sprints but no quarterly themes, add quarterly planning. Don’t build all five layers at once.
Planning is discovery at a longer time horizon. Event Storming makes domain assumptions visible. Sprint planning makes delivery assumptions visible. Quarterly planning makes strategic assumptions visible. It’s the same muscle, used at different scales.
Estimate at the layer that needs it. Sprint stories don’t need formal estimates — gut feel at five people is fine. Roadmap items need t-shirt sizes (S/M/L) so stakeholders know the rough scale. Board-level forecasts need throughput data — how many stories per sprint, how many sprints of work remain. Each layer gets the precision it needs and no more.
| Layer | Estimation approach | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sprint | Gut feel (“does this feel like a sprint?”) | Small team, shared context, conversation beats ceremony |
| Quarter | T-shirt sizing (S/M/L) | Stakeholders need rough scope; multiple squads need to coordinate dependencies |
| Year | Throughput forecasting (stories/sprint x sprints remaining) | Board needs credible ranges, not false precision |
A worked planning rhythm
A concrete cadence for a single squad that has all five layers running. Not the only way to schedule it, but a starting point that catches each layer’s question often enough to be useful.
| Cadence | What happens | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | Standup + assumptions check | 15 min |
| Fortnightly | Sprint planning (with quarterly theme connection) | 1 hour |
| Fortnightly | Sprint review / demo | 30 min |
| Fortnightly | Sprint retrospective (process, team dynamics, technical debt) | 90 min |
| Monthly | Impact Map check, customer interview sense-making | 30 min |
| Quarterly | Quarterly planning day (review, update Impact Map, set themes, map dependencies) | Half day |
| Quarterly | Quarterly retrospective (strategic drift, cross-team coordination, theme outcomes) | 1 hour |
| Annual | Strategy refresh, Impact Map rebuild, Assumption Mapping | Half day |
| Annual | Yearly retrospective (business assumptions, market shifts, what we’d do differently) | 1 hour |
Every planning layer needs its own feedback loop. Sprint retros catch process issues within a squad. Quarterly retros catch coordination failures between squads. Yearly retros catch assumptions about the business itself. Same discipline at every scale: reflect, learn, adjust.
Related references
- Which Workshop When — every discovery and delivery technique in one place
- Retrospectives at Every Scale — the feedback loop each layer needs
- The Greenbox Story — narrative worked examples of every layer in this post