Roman Vote

When to use

Inside Lean Coffee, when a topic's timer expires and the team needs to decide whether to keep going. Useful as a generic continue/stop check inside any timeboxed discussion. Don't use it as a substitute for a real decision vote — for a multi-option choice use Dot Voting; for a confidence check before commitment use Fist of Five. Roman Vote answers one question only: do we keep talking about this?

How it runs

1. Timer expires; facilitator asks the question

   'Continue or move on?' Asked at the second the timer hits zero, not as a vague check-in. The crispness of the prompt is the format.

2. Vote simultaneously

   All thumbs at once, not one at a time. Sequential voting hands the result to whoever votes first — the senior person's thumb sets the room.

3. Read the sideways count

   Thumbs up extends. Thumbs down moves on. Sideways is the warning shot — it means the voter has nothing left to add. A room of mostly sideways means kill the topic regardless of which side won the up/down split. Sideways is the honest answer pages dismiss as 'no opinion.'

4. Senior person votes last

   Or you've measured the senior person's preference and called it consensus. The Elbow Filter — Roman Vote's whole functional purpose — is to stop the dominant voice from extending unilaterally. That only works if their thumb goes last.

Why it works

Roman Vote works because it's fast and three-state. Up/down would force a binary on people who don't have one; a five-point scale would slow the timer-driven cadence Lean Coffee depends on. Three states — extend, kill, withdraw — match the actual emotional posture in the room and produce a usable signal in two seconds. The Elbow Filter framing is the sharpest description: it stops the loudest voice from running the timer alone.

Variations

• Reaction-emoji version on video: thumbs-up, thumbs-down, shrug. Same shape, much more legible than tiny on-screen thumbs.
• Slack-poll variant for async Lean Coffee: three-option poll, sixty-second window per topic.
• Drop sideways in groups under five — at small scale, the up/down split is decision enough.
• Add a post-vote prompt for the sideways voters: 'what would have made this useful?' Two extra minutes; surfaces what the topic missed.

Facilitator notes

Vote yourself, last, and watch the sideways count more than the up/down split. Three sideways out of seven votes means the topic has run its course, even if four people voted to extend — the four are talking, the three are tuning out, and the meeting needs a different topic. Don't editorialise sideways votes back into 'no opinion'; the voters are telling you something.

Pitfalls

• Reading sideways as neutral. Sideways means disengaged; the room is telling you to move on.
• Sequential voting. The first thumb sets the room; you measured the first voter, not the team.
• Using Roman Vote for a multi-option decision. Wrong tool — use Dot Voting.
• Skipping it because the conversation feels lively. Three people are talking; the other five are sideways. The vote tells you which it is.

Remote tips

Tiny thumbnails on a video grid make physical thumbs unreadable. Use built-in reaction emojis (Zoom, Meet, Teams all have them) or a quick three-option poll. The vote needs to be visible and simultaneous; whichever tool gets you both is fine.

Example outputs

• Topic: 'Should we adopt feature flags?' Timer expires. Vote: 5 up, 1 down, 1 sideways. Extend; the room wants more.
• Topic: 'Sprint planning length.' Timer expires. Vote: 2 up, 2 down, 3 sideways. Three sideways is the answer — kill the topic, the team's done.
• Topic: 'Wiki structure.' Vote: 1 up, 6 sideways. The 1 wants to keep going; the room has tuned out. Move on.

FAQ

Roman Vote or Fist of Five?

Roman Vote is binary-ish (continue/stop, three states max) and lives inside Lean Coffee timer cycles. Fist of Five is a confidence scale (five states) and runs before commitment to a plan. Different tools, different jobs. Don't substitute one for the other.

Is Roman Vote a standalone meeting?

No. It's a technique, not a meeting. Like Five Whys or Fishbone, it exists in our catalogue because facilitators search for it — but it lives inside Lean Coffee, not as its own session. If you want a meeting, run Lean Coffee.

What if everyone votes sideways?

Kill the topic immediately. A room of sideways means the team has nothing left to add — extending is just talking time-fill. Move to the next topic without ceremony.

Related activities

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