Biweekly Sprint Planning, Execution & Review

Implementation: Approved for an initial 2–3 sprint-cycle trial; collect feedback for a possible V1.1 update.
Cadence: Every two weeks, with Wednesday planning according to the published calendar.
Planning day: 8:30 AM–3:30 PM; all team members attend throughout unless absence is approved.
System of record: ClickUp.
Sprint IDs: YYYYMM-01 / YYYYMM-02 (dates govern when cycles cross months).
Approval: Delivery Lead approves routine sprint plans; CEO resolves strategic exceptions.

Purpose and Scope

Provide a single company-wide process to prepare, plan, execute, review and improve two-week work cycles across Engineering, Design, Growth, Client Operations, People Operations and CEO Office. Apply to both client-service and internal product work.

Every sprint must clarify why it matters, what will be delivered, who owns it, when it is due, and how completion will be accepted.

Principle: Clarity → Commitment → Execution → Delivery → Improvement.

Roles and Authority

Routine sprint approvals must not depend on CEO availability.

1. Prepare Before Planning

Task Owners: Update ClickUp task status and evidence; identify completed, incomplete and blocked work; report planned leave, dependencies and workload risks.

Team Leads: Review prior commitments, propose outcome-based sprint goals, prioritize backlog, clarify requirements, estimate effort, identify external obligations, and prepare available capacity.

Delivery Lead: Consolidate prior sprint report, carryover and blockers; prepare the agenda and cross-team dependency list; confirm boards and required participants are ready.

Planning is for alignment and decisions, not basic information discovery.

2. Conduct the Biweekly Planning Day

All team members attend the full day. Keep cross-functional discussions collective, time-box detailed technical debate, and facilitate department-specific planning within the event.

A. Review Previous Sprint and Improve

Review committed versus accepted work, business impact, rework and quality, blockers, causes of delays, communication and handoffs. Report:

• Completion rate: originally committed Tasks completed and accepted ÷ original committed Tasks × 100.
• Carryover rate: originally committed Tasks incomplete ÷ original committed Tasks × 100.
• On-time rate: completed Tasks accepted by their agreed deadline ÷ completed Tasks × 100.

Record approved changes separately rather than rewriting the original commitment baseline. Interpret counts with effort, complexity and value context.

Choose at most three improvement actions, each with one owner and deadline. Retrospectives improve systems, not assign blame.

B. Review Backlog and Define Sprint Goals

Review client commitments, product releases, bugs, growth initiatives, process improvements and carryover. Remove duplicate/outdated work. Prioritize by business impact, urgency, dependencies, effort and risk.

Define an outcome-focused overall sprint goal, with supporting departmental goals as appropriate. Classify selected work as:

• Committed: realistically deliverable during the sprint.
• Stretch: optional only if commitments remain protected.
• Backlog: excluded from this sprint.

C. Break Down Tasks and Apply Definition of Ready

Each committed Task needs:

1. Action-oriented title, purpose and expected result.
2. Scope, requirements and acceptance criteria.
3. One accountable owner and reviewer/approver where required.
4. Priority, estimated effort, due date and relevant dependencies.
5. Links to supporting references and expected evidence.

A Task is an accountable deliverable; a Feature is internal breakdown or implementation work not independently measured as a deliverable. A subtask can count as a Task when it has its own accountable owner and independent deliverable. Maintain consistency with Performance Review.

Definition of Ready: An outcome, owner, requirements, acceptance criteria, effort, deadline and dependencies are clear enough for meaningful execution. Do not treat unresolved work as a ready commitment; assign clarification and a resolution plan.

D. Assign Ownership, Buffers, Dependencies and Dates

One Task = one accountable owner. Supporting contributors may be recorded.

Blinto's baseline is six productive hours per available working day:

• Gross capacity = available working days × 6 hours.
• Net commitment capacity = gross capacity − known obligations − reserved support/unexpected-work buffer.

Deduct planned leave, recurring meetings, non-sprint duties and client support. Reserve capacity for urgent requests, support, incidents and rework. Team Leads recommend, and the Delivery Lead approves, a buffer appropriate to historical demand and risk; no universal percentage is mandated. Do not allocate 100% of gross hours without considering interruptions.

Record significant dependencies and blockers with affected work, resolution owner, due date and escalation path. Set deadlines that allow review and approval.

E. Confirm and Approve Commitments

Before approval, the Delivery Lead confirms that all committed Tasks meet readiness requirements; each has a delivery owner, reviewer where needed, realistic deadline, accepted capacity allocation, visible dependencies and completion criteria. Record goals, committed/stretch scope and final decisions in ClickUp. Team members confirm their own responsibilities.

Delivery Lead approves routine sprint plans. Significant strategic conflicts, material resource commitments, or changes to critical client obligations require CEO escalation before affected work is authorized.

3. Execute and Monitor

Daily Stand-up

9:00 AM, facilitated by Delivery Lead. Briefly cover progress toward outcomes, next priority and blockers. Hold detailed problem-solving separately. Update status/evidence in ClickUp and communicate handoffs promptly.

Mid-Sprint Health Check

Around the midpoint, review scope progress, at-risk deadlines, dependencies, quality/review readiness, capacity and corrective actions.

Scope Change Control

For new requests:

1. Log in ClickUp.
2. Assess urgency, impact, effort and dependencies.
3. Defer until another sprint if possible.
4. If urgent, identify available buffer or the existing commitment to trade off.
5. Obtain Delivery Lead approval (CEO for strategic exceptions).
6. Record the changed scope and notify affected people.

No silent priority changes. Critical incidents follow Incident Escalation.

4. Accept Work and Close the Sprint

Definition of Done: Requirements and acceptance criteria are fulfilled; necessary testing and reviews completed; revisions addressed; documentation and handoffs completed where relevant; supporting evidence linked in ClickUp; mandatory approver acceptance recorded. Work awaiting required review is not Done. Follow Deliverable QA & Approval where applicable.

At sprint end, classify each originally committed Task as completed/accepted, incomplete, blocked, or removed/replaced by approved change. Report goal outcomes, original versus completed scope, completion and carryover measures, major business results, blockers, rework, scope changes and improvement actions.

Do not automatically roll incomplete work into the next sprint: reprioritize against remaining effort, dependencies and capacity. Use the report for the next planning day.

Sprint metrics support team predictability and process improvement; raw task counts alone do not determine individual performance.

Exceptions and Escalation

• Approved absence: Coordinate handoff with Delivery Lead and People Operations; see Attendance Policy.
• Urgent client/support work: Apply reserved buffer; record any commitment trade-off.
• Strategic or resource conflict: Escalate to CEO.
• Unready work: Do not commit before clarification is sufficient.
• Incidents: Apply Incident Escalation.

Sprint Readiness Checklist

• Prior sprint reviewed; actions recorded with owners and deadlines.
• Sprint goal agreed and backlog prioritized.
• Committed, stretch and backlog work separated.
• Every committed Task ready with acceptance criteria, owner, reviewer and due date.
• Net capacity calculated with a realistic buffer.
• Dependencies and blockers have resolution owners.
• All team members attended or have approved absences and handoffs.
• ClickUp board updated and team commitments confirmed.
• Delivery Lead approval recorded; CEO exceptions escalated.
• Mid-sprint checkpoint and next review planned.

Trial Review

Run V1.0 unchanged for 2–3 cycles unless a material operational issue requires immediate correction. Collect sprint completion/carryover trends, planning effectiveness, buffer usage and team feedback; propose V1.1 based on the evidence.

Related Resources

• Office Hours Policy
• Attendance Policy
• Performance Review
• Deliverable QA & Approval
• Incident Escalation