12 Sprint Planning Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)

My first sprint planning meeting was challenging and overwhelming. I had observed a few sprint plannings before conducting one with my own team, but being the Product Manager responsible for outcomes was completely different from being an observer.

The engineers asked questions I could not answer. Technical details, priorities, launch timing. The result: They pulled far fewer stories than I expected. I left frustrated, unable to pinpoint what went wrong.

After years of running sprint planning meetings across multiple companies, I have identified the patterns that separate successful plannings from chaotic ones. Here are the 12 most common sprint planning mistakes and exactly how to fix them.

"Both Scrum and Kanban require a lot of discipline. People underestimate how hard both frameworks are." — Christian Strunk

Mistake #1: Going In With an Unprepared Backlog

This happens constantly. I see it as a consultant in almost every new team I work with:

• Teams show up with unprepared backlogs for sprint planning
• Too many last-minute tickets added the day before
• Unrefined tickets missing acceptance criteria, designs, or technical context

Even if the Product Manager "owns" the backlog, the whole team is responsible for preparing it. The fix is straightforward: regular backlog refinement sessions where you groom tickets together before planning day.

How to fix it: Schedule a dedicated refinement session mid-sprint. Share the prioritized sprint backlog with the team 24 hours before planning. This eliminates surprise discussions and saves significant time. For a deeper dive into organizing your backlog effectively, see backlog management best practices.

Mistake #2: Not Defining Sprint Priorities Upfront

As a Product Manager, you must derive sprint priorities from your product strategy and roadmap. The Eisenhower Matrix helps, but I have found one question cuts through the noise faster than any framework:

"If only one thing can be finished this sprint, what would it be?"

From there, build outward. If you have more than 3 priorities, you have too many.

How to fix it: Before every sprint planning, write down your top 3 priorities ranked by impact. Present these in the first 5 minutes of planning so everyone aligns on what matters most.

Mistake #3: Running Sprint Planning Without an Agenda

Not everything needs a rigid process, but sprint planning benefits from structure. A clear agenda keeps the meeting focused and ensures you cover all the critical topics.

Sprint planning agenda template:

• Present the product roadmap and priorities (Product Manager, 5 min)
• Review velocity and capacity (Scrum Master/Team, 5 min)
• Discuss backlog items story by story (PM + Team, 30-45 min)
• Define the sprint goal (Team, 5 min)
• Pull tickets into the sprint (Team, 10 min)
• Technical planning discussion (Engineering, 15 min)

How to fix it: Create a recurring agenda document. Share it before every planning. Assign a timekeeper to keep each section on track.

Mistake #4: Skipping the Vision and Roadmap Pitch

I made this mistake repeatedly early in my career. Every team member arrives at sprint planning with their mind on whatever they were just working on. An engineer fixing a critical bug is not thinking about next sprint's priorities.

Starting with a 5-minute roadmap presentation helps everyone "arrive" mentally and align on what matters. Explaining the "why" behind priorities makes the story-pulling conversation much smoother.

How to fix it: Open every sprint planning with a brief context-setting presentation. Cover the current roadmap priorities and any changes since last sprint. Include a quick Q&A before moving to backlog items.

Mistake #5: Ignoring Sprint Capacity

Sprint capacity defines each team member's availability during the sprint cycle. Vacations, meetings, company events, on-call rotations—all of these reduce the team's true capacity.

Capacity directly impacts velocity. The better you plan for capacity, the more accurate your velocity predictions become. Ignoring capacity leads to missed sprint goals and frustrated teams.

I have created a sprint capacity planning sheet you can copy and adapt for your team.

How to fix it: At the start of every planning, ask each team member about their availability. Document holidays, training days, and other commitments. Adjust your velocity target accordingly.

Mistake #6: Planning Without Velocity Data

Early in my career, my teams did not estimate tickets. We never calculated velocity from previous sprints. Finishing a sprint on time was more luck than skill.

Velocity (the sum of story points completed per sprint) gives you a realistic baseline for planning. Without it, you are guessing.

How to fix it: Create a story point reference sheet during your first sprint planning. Compare a new ticket to completed tickets of similar complexity. Track velocity every sprint and use the 3-sprint rolling average as your planning baseline.

Mistake #7: Bypassing the Definition of Ready

Teams and Product Managers often push tickets into sprints that are not ready. The excuse is always the same: "It's urgent" or "We'll figure it out during the sprint."

The cost of ignoring the Definition of Ready is predictable: work takes longer, quality drops, and velocity data becomes meaningless.

"Definition of Ready and Done aren't about frameworks—they're sanity checks." — Christian Strunk

Pulling an unestimated ticket corrupts your velocity metrics. Missing acceptance criteria means engineers will interrupt you with questions throughout the sprint.

How to fix it: Create a Definition of Ready checklist. No ticket enters a sprint without meeting every criterion. Typical requirements: acceptance criteria documented, designs attached, technical approach discussed, story pointed.

Mistake #8: Abandoning the Agenda Mid-Meeting

Even with a solid agenda, teams often drift off-track. Someone raises a tangential topic. A technical debate consumes 30 minutes. Suddenly you are out of time.

Mastery comes from routine. Changing your process every sprint prevents you from learning what works.

How to fix it: Assign someone to facilitate and keep time. Park off-topic discussions in a "parking lot" for later. Stick to your agenda for at least 5 sprints before making changes—gather data before optimizing.

Mistake #9: Product Manager Pulling Stories

Any team member can facilitate story pulling, but the Product Manager should not be the one deciding how much the team commits to. PMs naturally want to maximize output. That bias leads to over-commitment.

Let engineers pull stories based on capacity and velocity. They understand the technical complexity better and will make more realistic commitments.

How to fix it: Have a senior engineer or Scrum Master facilitate the pulling process. The PM presents priorities and answers questions but does not push for "just one more story."

Mistake #10: Pushing Stories to Meet Deadlines

Deadlines create pressure to cram more into a sprint. But a pushy attitude creates long-term problems: technical debt, burnout, and increasingly inaccurate velocity data.

When starting with Scrum, pull less than you think you can finish. Build trust and accuracy first.

How to fix it: When something urgent appears mid-sprint, sit down with the team immediately. Discuss trade-offs. Remove something of equal size if you must add something. Never just pile on more work.

Mistake #11: Skipping Sprint Goal Definition

After reviewing the backlog, many teams jump straight into technical planning. They skip defining a sprint goal—the one outcome that matters most.

Sprint goals provide focus. When priorities conflict during the sprint, the sprint goal answers the question "what should we prioritize?" Clear goals also increase team commitment.

I recommend no more than 2 sprint goals. I have never set more than 3 with any team.

How to fix it: Before closing sprint planning, ask: "What is the one thing we must accomplish this sprint?" Write it down. Make it visible. Reference it in standups.

Mistake #12: Starting Without a Sprint Name

This sounds trivial, but sprint names build team identity and ownership. Taking 2 minutes to name a sprint is worth the investment.

One of my teams was building a product import API. We named the sprint "Mission Importable." It was our final sprint to deliver the feature. Everyone rallied around that name, and we shipped it. The pride on team members' faces during the stakeholder demo was real.

A word of caution: we once named a sprint "We Don't Give a Ship" while building a shipping API. Stakeholders did not appreciate the humor—especially when we missed the sprint goal.

How to fix it: Spend the last 2 minutes of planning brainstorming sprint names. Let the team vote. Pick something memorable that connects to the sprint's main objective.

Sprint Planning Checklist

Most sprint planning problems come from poor preparation. The meeting itself is straightforward when you arrive ready.

I have compiled these lessons into a sprint planning checklist you can use before every planning session. It covers preparation, the meeting itself, and follow-up actions.

Download the free sprint planning checklist (PDF)

For more on writing effective tickets that make sprint planning smoother, check out the complete guide to user stories and epics.