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Templates / Projects and agile

Planning meeting

Planning meeting agenda template for quarterly team planning

A planning meeting turns a long list of possible work into a short, ranked plan the team can actually staff. The agenda should review how the last period went, agree two or three goals, check capacity, rank priorities against those goals, write down what you are not doing, and give every priority one owner. This template covers a quarterly planning session of about two and a half hours.

Just need an agenda for one ordinary meeting? Use the meeting agenda template instead.

Best forTeam leads and managers planning a quarter, season or half year

Meeting length2 to 3 hours, once a quarter

SectionsLast period review, what has changed, goals, capacity, ranked priorities, not doing, risks, check-ins

FormatsGoogle Docs, Word, Notion, Markdown

Word Markdown

Planning meeting agenda.docx

Planning meeting agenda

Period being planned Date Time2.5 hours, with a breakFacilitator Notes by Pre-readLast period's results, the list of requests, capacity numbers

Item	Owner	Time	What we need to leave with
Last period review	Team lead	20 min	Each goal marked met, partly met or missed, with one line on why
What has changed	Team lead	15 min	An agreed list of new inputs and constraints
Goals for the period	Everyone	30 min	Two or three goals, each with a finish line
Capacity	Team lead	15 min	People-weeks available for project work
Break		10 min
Rank priorities and draw the line	Everyone	40 min	A ranked list with a line where capacity runs out
Not doing, risks and check-in dates	Facilitator	10 min	Not-doing list, each risk with an owner, check-ins booked
Action items and read-back	Notes taker	10 min	Every priority and action has one owner

Word MarkdownPastes into Google Docs, Word or Notion with headings and tables intact.

Word Markdown

Planning meeting notes: [period].docx

Planning meeting notes: [period]

Period Date Attendees Notes by

Last period review

Goal	Result	Why, in one line
	Met / Partly met / Missed

What has changed

New requests, budget, staffing, outside deadlines

Goals

Goal	Finish line or number

Capacity

People, weeks, share spent on routine work, people-weeks left for priorities

Ranked priorities

Rank	Priority	Goal it serves	Size	Owner
1			People-weeks
Capacity line

Not doing this period

Item, who asked for it, when to revisit

Risks

Risk	Owner	Next step

Check-ins

Date, and what we'll review

Action items

Item	Owner	Due

Word MarkdownPastes into Google Docs, Word or Notion with headings and tables intact.

Hollow Oak Furniture customer support, Q1 2027 planning

Filled-in example

Hollow Oak Furniture customer support, Q1 2027 planning

PeriodJanuary to March 2027DateThursday, November 12, 2026, 1:00 to 3:30 pmAttendeesTeresa Lin (support lead), Jamal Brooks, Fiona Walsh, Marco DeLuca, Aisha Karim, Wes FontaineNotes byFiona Walsh

Last period review

Goal	Result	Why, in one line
Reply to emails within one business day	Partly met	Met through October. Slipped to 1.3 days in early November as holiday orders started early.
Publish 15 assembly help articles	Partly met, 9 published	Writing took longer than planned and Marco was out for two weeks
Move the phone line to a callback queue	Met	Phone vendor set it up in a week

What has changed

Spring catalog launches March 1, 2027 with 40 new products.
Returns window changes from 30 to 60 days on January 15. Expect more returns questions.
Wes moves to the warehouse team on February 1. A replacement hasn't been approved.

Goals

Goal	Finish line or number
Keep email replies fast through the returns change	90% of emails answered within one business day, checked weekly
Fewer assembly questions	Assembly emails down from about 210 a month to 150 by the end of March
Ready for the spring launch	Product notes for all 40 new items in the help desk by February 26

Capacity

6 people in January, 5 from February 1 unless Wes's replacement is approved. 13 weeks. About 60% of time goes to daily tickets and calls. That leaves about 28 people-weeks for priorities, or 31 with a replacement.

Ranked priorities

Rank	Priority	Goal it serves	Size	Owner
1	Returns reply templates and help articles, live before January 15	Fast replies	3 people-weeks	Jamal
2	Finish the last 6 assembly articles and record 10 short assembly videos	Fewer assembly questions	8 people-weeks	Marco
3	Product notes for the 40 spring items	Spring launch	6 people-weeks	Aisha
4	Hand over Wes's queue, or train his replacement	Fast replies	4 people-weeks	Teresa
5	Weekly review of ticket tags to find the next most common questions	Fewer assembly questions	3 people-weeks	Fiona
Capacity line	24 people-weeks planned, about 4 held back for surprises
6	Live chat pilot	Fast replies	10 people-weeks	Not planned

Not doing this period

Live chat pilot (marketing asked). Revisit at Q2 planning.
Rewriting every care guide (Fiona's idea). Only the three most asked-about guides, as part of priority 5.
Spanish help articles (sales asked). Needs a translation budget nobody has approved.

Risks

Risk	Owner	Next step
Wes's replacement not approved	Teresa	Ask her director for a yes or no by December 4
The returns change brings more volume than expected	Jamal	Watch reply times weekly from January 18. If they pass 1.5 days, pause the videos.
Merchandising sends new product details late	Aisha	Ask for a delivery date for the product list

Check-ins

Thursday, January 21, 2027: returns volume and reply times
Thursday, February 25, 2027: spring launch readiness, assembly email count
Thursday, March 25, 2027: quarter review, inputs for Q2 planning

Action items

Item	Owner	Due
Send the plan and the not-doing list to marketing and sales	Teresa	Nov 16
Get a decision on Wes's replacement	Teresa	Dec 4
Ask merchandising when the spring product list will arrive	Aisha	Nov 20
Draft the returns reply templates	Jamal	Dec 18

Hollow Oak Furniture and everyone on its support team are a fictional sample.

Best forTeam leads and managers planning a quarter, season or half year

Meeting length2 to 3 hours, once a quarter

SectionsLast period review, what has changed, goals, capacity, ranked priorities, not doing, risks, check-ins

FormatsGoogle Docs, Word, Notion, Markdown

What to write in each section

Last period review

Each goal from the last plan, whether it was met, and one line on why or why not. Keep it to 20 minutes. It isn't a full retrospective.

What has changed

New requests, budget, staff changes, and deadlines set by other teams. Collect these before the meeting so the session isn't spent hearing them for the first time.

Goals

Two or three outcomes for the period, each with a number or a clear finish line. With more than three, the ranking below stops meaning much.

Capacity

Time available for project work after the routine work that has to happen anyway. Estimate your own routine share and subtract it first.

"6 people for 13 weeks, about 60% on daily tickets, leaves roughly 31 people-weeks" beats "we're a bit stretched".

Ranked priorities

Rank, don't group. Each priority gets an owner, a rough size and the goal it serves. Draw a line where capacity runs out.

Not doing this period

Everything below the line, written out with who asked for it. Tell those people right after the meeting, before they find out some other way.

Risks and check-ins

What could break the plan, with an owner, plus the dates you'll check progress. Once a month is usually enough.

When to use this template

Every request feels urgent and the team has twelve top priorities.
You're planning next quarter and want the plan to fit the people and hours you actually have.
Last quarter's plan was forgotten by week three because nobody owned any part of it.

Questions people ask

How is a planning meeting different from a regular team meeting?: A team meeting deals with this week's work. A planning meeting decides what the team will and won't take on for the next quarter or season, so it needs more time, a pre-read, and someone in the room who can approve trade-offs.
How many priorities should a team plan for a quarter?: As many as fit above the capacity line, which for most small teams is four to six. If nobody can be named as owner for an item, it belongs below the line.
What should you send out before a planning meeting?: Last period's results, the list of requests that came in, and the capacity numbers, a few days ahead. Ask people to add any missing requests to the list beforehand instead of raising them halfway through the meeting. How to write a meeting agenda covers pre-reads and when to send them.

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