Sprint Planning Prompts

Setup

Getting started

Choose three to five prompts from the list below that are relevant to the work you are planning. Add them to your backlog refinement or sprint planning session, and capture any actions, tags, or story changes that result. Feed those into your backlog or link them to Impact Tags for follow-up.

The prompts

Ask these questions about each story, epic, or feature

• What happens if this becomes the default for many users over time?
• Could this feature make it easier for users to choose a lower-impact option in the real world (e.g. shared transport, local pickup, reduced travel)?
• Could the design make more sustainable behaviour easier or more attractive?
• Does this feature work equally well for users with different abilities, devices, or connection speeds?
• Could we meet this need by re-using or adapting something we already have?
• Is this solving a clear, current need, or is it adding unused complexity?
• Could we design this to work with less data, less energy, or fewer steps?
• If we had to disclose the environmental cost of this feature to users, would we build it the same way?
• Are we making assumptions about user context that could exclude certain groups?
• If this feature uses AI, have we considered the inference cost at the scale of expected usage, and whether a lighter-weight approach would meet the same need?
• Are we introducing a third-party service or dependency whose environmental or social practices we have assessed?

Guidance

Tips for using prompts well

• Keep the session moving. Not every prompt will apply to every story.
• Use prompts as conversation starters, not as rigid criteria.
• Rotate which prompts you use each sprint to keep the thinking fresh.
• If a prompt surfaces a big unknown, tag the story and investigate later rather than derailing the session.
• Check for trade-offs: changes that reduce technical impact should not compromise accessibility, security, or core functionality.

In practice

Example