How it works

A meeting that ends with decisions, not minutes.

Punkto encodes the Lean Coffee format — invented in Seattle in 2009 — into a real-time collaborative tool. Below is exactly what happens, minute by minute, when you run a session.

Four steps

A structured meeting in four steps.

Lean Coffee is a 20-year-old format used by agile teams worldwide. Punkto turns it into software — same rhythm, less paperwork.

01

Open a board

One click. Share the link or a 6-digit code. No accounts needed for participants.

punkto.app/s/q3-retro-r4n8
02

Everyone proposes

Topics are added live. The group votes — priorities surface in seconds.

+ Add a topic… · 12 proposed · 4 voting
03

Discuss at pace

Top topic gets a 5-minute timer. The fair-turn queue gives quiet voices the floor.

▶ 04:43 / 5:00 · queue: Theo → Marie → Niko
04

Close & export

AI writes the summary. Action items get owners and dates. Sent by email, never trains a model.

≡ summary.md · 4 decisions · 7 actions
The format

Lean Coffee, finally
without the sticky notes.

Invented in Seattle in 2009 by Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith. Punkto is the format, encoded — for distributed teams, on a screen, with a timer that actually rings.

01

No agenda before the meeting

Whoever shows up brings what matters. Less prep, less politics.

02

Topics ranked by votes

30 seconds of dot-voting. The group's priorities surface — not the loudest voice's.

03

A timer per topic

5 min by default. When it rings, a Roman vote: extend or move on.

04

Fair turn-taking

The speaking queue rotates. Quiet voices get the floor.

CURRENT TOPIC · 7 votes

How do we de-risk the Q3 rollout plan?

  • Phased release vs full cutover by region
  • Rollback plan if NPS drops > 10pts
  • Owner per workstream — name & date
4:46 / 5:00
To discuss · ranked by votes3
  • Customer onboarding: keep 1:1 or scale to async?
    @theo · 2 details
  • Ship the new pricing experiment before mid-month?
    @sara · 4 details
  • Hiring panel calibration — who reviews what?
    @niko · 1 detail
Proposed topics · not yet voted in2
  • Should we sunset the old billing API?
    @marie
  • Slack channel hygiene — too many #random
    @yuki
Done · 2
  • On-call rotation — split EMEA / NAM
    3 actions assigned
  • Postmortem template review
    1 action · @marie
After the session — automatic

You leave the call.
AI writes the recap.

Punkto records your session host-side, transcribes it privately, then writes a structured AI summary — decisions, action items, owners, and a searchable transcript. No live captions to distract anyone, no human note-taker.

AI summaryTranscript 12 minRecording audioQ3 review · Engineering · Apr 30, 2026
Decisions3
  • Phased Q3 rollout, not full cutover. EMEA week 1, NAM week 3, APAC week 5. Rollback if NPS drops >8pts in any region.
  • Pricing experiment ships before mid-month. 50/50 split, kill-switch ready, review on day 14.
  • Onboarding stays 1:1 until ARR per CSM exceeds €500k. Revisit Q4.
Action items5
  • Lock NPS thresholds with data teamSSaraMon May 4
  • Wire kill-switch into pricing toggle serviceTTheoWed May 6
  • Draft EMEA rollback runbookNNikoFri May 8
  • Customer comms — phased timelineMMarietoday
  • Schedule Q4 onboarding reviewYYukiAug 15
?Open questions2
  • How do we handle a partial rollback (one region only)? — owner not assigned.
  • Do we need legal sign-off for the new pricing copy in DE? — flagged for next session.
01

Built-in EU video

Self-hosted in the EU. Up to 25 participants, every browser, no install.

02

Private transcription

EU-hosted speech AI in FR / EN / DE / ES and 30+ more. Audio is transcribed and discarded.

03

AI summary, not noise

A European LLM writes a structured recap: decisions, actions with owners and due dates.

Who uses Punkto

Anywhere a meeting
needs structure.

01 · Product & Eng

Sprint retros that ship.

Replace the Miro chaos. Topics get votes, decisions get owners, the summary lands in Slack before standup.

"We cut retro time from 90 to 45 minutes — and finally have action items that get done."
02 · Leadership

Boards & exec sync.

Confidential agenda. EU-hosted. Signed DPA. Zero audio retention.

"Our board minutes used to take a week. Now they exist five minutes after the call."
03 · Communities

Open Lean Coffees.

Public link, no signup, voting from a phone. Run a meetup with 30 people.

"Best way I've found to run our monthly community sync without an entire ops team."
Questions

The honest
FAQ.

Do I need an account to join a session?

No. Only the host (facilitator) needs a Punkto account. Participants join by clicking the share link or entering a 6-digit code, with just a display name.

Does Punkto record video?

No. Punkto records audio only, and only when the host explicitly clicks "Start recording". Audio is transcribed in memory and immediately discarded.

Can I run Punkto alongside Google Meet, Teams or Zoom?

Yes. The Punkto Chrome extension overlays a structured-meeting sidebar onto Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom calls — no migration needed.

What happens to my data if I close my account?

Account deletion cascades to all sessions, transcripts, summaries and action items. Backups are purged within a defined window. A deletion attestation is provided on request.

Where exactly is Punkto hosted?

In the European Union, on EU-incorporated infrastructure. Not subject to the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or other US extraterritorial laws.

Is Lean Coffee right for my team?

Lean Coffee works best for regular sync meetings (weekly stand-ups, retros, alignment). It is a bad fit for meetings with a single predefined deliverable. Read our practical guide.

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