What is Parking Lot In Scrum, And How To Use It Effectively

One of the biggest problems in meetings is that they go off the rails all the time –  we get runaway trains, we have rabbit holes, we get blurred herbs, we get people that just interrupt and ramble, we get one issue that dominoes into 50 other issues, and it’s just kind of hard to keep everything on track and together.  Fortunately, there are simple little techniques that help us keep all these hectic things from happening. One of them is called the Parking Lot.

What is a Meeting Parking Lot?

The Parking Lot during the meeting is, in essence, a repository for your team’s ideas that’s very simple and easy to implement.  At the beginning of every meeting, you say something like. We’re going to establish a Parking Lot before we get started. You can use a whiteboard, you can assign a Parking Lot attendant, who is someone with a clipboard and a piece of paper on it, and any issue that is not directly associated with the agenda or off-topic goes to the Parking Lot. This helps keep the original agenda on track and on time, and it also shows that person you take their input seriously. 

Parking Lot Best Practices

The most important part of this common-sense practice is setting up the Parking Lot at the beginning of the meeting. Don’t wait until someone blurts something out, then go like: “Actually, we’re going to have a Parking Lot!” That’s gonna make them feel insulted, not appreciated. So you`d better start the meeting off by saying: “Before we begin today, I need to assign a Parking Lot attendant. Terry, will you take the Parking Lot today?”

Now, anything that flows off of our agenda, it’s important that we want to make sure we capture it. We’re gonna go ahead and put it in the Parking Lot, and if we can get to it today, great, if not, we’ll make sure to handle it either one-on-one or in another meeting. Because what happens is, when someone brings up something they want to talk about, it’s important that we don’t just shut them down; we actually appreciate them bringing it up and assure them it’s gonna get taken care of by parking it in the Parking Lot.

Most issues may or may not be important, but we don’t have to establish their importance or validity. We don’t have the time for that, we’re just going to park it and move on.

Remember to either set up a Parking Lot attendant or handle it yourself. Make sure that when someone brings up something, you’re going to “park” it. While you appreciate what they said, don’t give it any discussion at all. Just put it in the Parking Lot, let them know we’re gonna get to it at another meeting.

When you prepare the agenda for the next meeting, simply go back to the Parking Lot and review the topics that have been added there, then move them onto your new agenda.

Parking Lot Example

Okay, how does that work in a meeting? Now, let’s say I’m in my management team meeting and we’re discussing a marketing campaign. And we say we have to create a lounge event in the UK and then suddenly one of the team members says: “Oh, yeah we have to talk about the barbecue party! ” to which you say: “No sorry we cannot do that but we will take that up in the next meeting”  So you create a topic “Barbecue Party” and place it on a virtual “Parking Lot” in any PM tool you`re using or simple write it down in your Notebook. 

Now, when you create your next meeting, you can pull this topic from the Parking Lot and add it to the agenda. So in summary, Parking Lot keeps your original meeting on track,

What will happen after you’ve done this for a number of meetings is that people actually do things like this: “I’ve got an issue, I wonder if we might park it”. Because they want the issue to be heard, they want it addressed later, and people will actually start parking in the lot themselves. And if they’re not doing that, and you just keep parking it yourself, it may be that you’re not appreciating them enough. Make sure to appreciate these ideas, set up your Parking Lot up front, and follow this in every single meeting.

How to Use Parking Lot in Scrum

In Scrum, a Parking Lot is an informal facilitation tool that helps teams stay focused within the strict timeboxes of Scrum events. Although it is not defined in the Scrum Guide and is not an official artifact, it is commonly used to capture off-topic ideas, unanswered questions, or discussions that would otherwise derail the meeting.

Its purpose and handling vary by event, for example:

• during the Daily Scrum, items that do not contribute to achieving the Sprint Goal are parked for follow-up conversations after the meeting;
• in Sprint Planning or Sprint Review, parked topics often become input for the Product Backlog or future refinement; 
• in Retrospectives, the Parking Lot can hold important but not yet actionable topics. 

A key peculiarity in Scrum is the need for clear ownership – typically by the Scrum Master or Product Owner – to ensure parked items are reviewed and resolved rather than forgotten. When used properly, the Parking Lot reinforces focus, transparency, and empiricism. When misused, it can become an avoidance mechanism that delays decisions and allows recurring issues to stagnate.

Best Parking Lot Tools

You don’t need anything fancy to run a Parking Lot – here are some effective options:

1. Whiteboard or Flipchart – Perfect for in-person meetings. Easy to update and visible to everyone.
2. Sticky Notes – Flexible for rearranging, color-coding, or grouping topics quickly.
3. Miro / MURAL / Jamboard – Great for virtual or hybrid meetings; allows real-time collaboration.
4. Trello / Asana / Jira – Use a dedicated list or column for Parking Lot items; ideal for tracking and follow-up.
5. Notebook or Shared Document (Google Docs, Notion, Confluence) – Simple, low-tech option; easy to copy items into the next agenda.

Tip: Choose a tool your team can easily access and consistently use, so items don’t get lost between meetings.

Parking Lot Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

While a Parking Lot can significantly improve meeting focus and outcomes, it’s often misused. Below are the most common mistakes that reduce its effectiveness – and how to avoid them.

1. Turning the Parking Lot into a “Nice-to-Have.”

One of the biggest mistakes is creating a Parking Lot but never revisiting it. When participants see that parked items are ignored, they quickly lose trust in the process and stop contributing.

How to avoid it: Always allocate time at the end of the meeting (or in a follow-up) to review, prioritize, or assign ownership to parked items.

2. Using the Parking Lot to Shut People Down

A Parking Lot should not feel like a polite way to silence someone. If overused or applied harshly, participants may feel dismissed rather than heard.

How to avoid it: Acknowledge the value of the input before parking it, and clearly explain why it’s being deferred.

3. Parking Everything That Feels Inconvenient

Some facilitators park difficult or uncomfortable topics simply to keep the meeting smooth. This turns the Parking Lot into a conflict-avoidance tool rather than a focus tool.

How to avoid it: Only park items that are genuinely off-topic or time-inappropriate – not issues that are essential to the meeting’s goal.

4. Being Too Vague with Parked Items

Writing unclear notes like “Discuss process” or “Marketing issue” makes it hard to act on the Parking Lot later.

How to avoid it: Capture parked items with enough context so someone who wasn’t in the room can understand what needs to be addressed.

5. Letting the Parking Lot Grow Unbounded

If every meeting adds more items without resolution, the Parking Lot becomes overwhelming and meaningless.

How to avoid it: Try including the items from the previous meeting`s Parking Lot in the next meeting agenda. Periodically, clean up the Parking Lot by closing resolved items, merging duplicates, and dropping low-value topics.

Summary

The Parking Lot is a simple yet powerful facilitation technique that helps teams keep meetings focused without ignoring valuable ideas. By intentionally capturing off-topic or time-inappropriate discussions, teams avoid derailments while maintaining trust and engagement.

In Scrum, where timeboxes and focus are critical, the Parking Lot is especially helpful. It supports transparency and flow, and if used consistently and responsibly, it becomes a habit that empowers teams rather than a tool for avoidance.

If you’re not using it yet, I suggest introducing a Parking Lot at your next meeting or Scrum event. Set it up upfront, make it visible, assign ownership, and commit to revisiting it. After a few sessions, observe how meeting focus improves, and of course, share your experience with me here in comments 🙂