Notion for agile coaches on Mac: sprints, retros and coaching notes with Lazur

Agile coaches spend a lot of time looking for things. Sprint goals sit on one page, last retro's actions sit on another, and the coaching notes for a tricky Scrum Master sit somewhere else. A 2022 Coveo press release, based on a survey of 4,000 adults, says workers spend an average of 3.6 hours every day searching for information. Notion can help with that, but only if the workspace fits how you actually work.

What an agile coach keeps in Notion

The Scrum Alliance describes an agile coach as someone who teaches, inspires and leads individuals, teams and organizations through change. That covers coaching Scrum Masters and leaders, and driving continuous improvement. In Notion, that work usually becomes a short list of pages and databases.

• Sprint board: the goal, the dates and the work each team commits to.
• Retro database: one row per item, with an owner and a status.
• Coaching log: dated notes on each Scrum Master, team and leader you coach.
• Team health page: a quick check on how each team feels before a sprint starts.
• Change tracker: the agreements you made with leaders, and whether they held.

Keep these as databases, not as pages full of copied text. A database lets you filter, sort and count. Copied text only lets you scroll. That difference matters the first time a leader asks how many retro actions are still open.

Set up sprints in Notion on Mac

Sprints in Notion need a Task database. If your team does not have one, create it first. Turning on sprints adds a Sprints database and a Sprint board to the sidebar. If Notion is not installed yet, follow our guide to installing the Notion desktop app on Mac.

1. Open the team's Task database.
2. Choose Database settings > More settings > Sprints > Turn on sprints.
3. Open the Sprint board in the sidebar.
4. Add your first sprint to the Sprints database, using the name the team already uses.

Lazur helps most when you are not sure where something lives. Hold ⌥ ⌘ and ask where the sprint setting is. Lazur draws a circle and a label around it on your screen, then answers out loud. Ask it to guide you through the steps, and it waits for each click before it names the next one.

Build a retro database you can actually read

A retro page that is one long list stops being useful quickly. A database fixes that. Each retro item becomes a row, and each row gets properties you can sort, filter and count. Start with a short set of properties, then add more only when you need them. Add a property from the + at the right end of the table header.

Avoid a property called Notes that holds everything. A single text field cannot be sorted or counted. Put the detail in the page body of each row instead. Open the row, then type / to add headings, toggles or to-do lists.

Filter and group so each team sees its own work

Once the Team property exists, add a filter. Open the view, choose Filter, then pick Team and the team name. Save the result as its own view and name it after the team. Keep the full database as your default view. Our guide to filtering a database in Notion on Mac covers the steps in detail.

Here is a worked example. Say you coach a few teams, and each one holds a retro at the end of every sprint. After a few sprints, the Sprint relation and the Status property show which items came back again and never closed. Count those in the team view, then bring the list to the next retro. The conversation changes when the repeats sit on the screen.

Coaching notes: keep them private and findable

Coaching notes hold the most sensitive text in your workspace. Keep them in their own database, and lock the pages you do not want anyone else to edit. The steps are in our guide to locking a page in Notion on Mac.

When you need one note again, search before you scroll. Press ⌘P in the desktop app to open quick find, then type a name, a team or a phrase from the note. If the results are long, open the database and filter it by Team or Sprint. Our search guide lists the shortcuts and filters.

Templates for retros and sprint reviews

A template saves you from rebuilding the same retro page each time. Build one page with the headings you always use. Then save it as a template in the Retro database, so every new row starts with those headings. The steps for database templates are in our template guide.

A useful retro template has toggles for what went well, what got in the way and what the team will try next. Each toggle holds the items for that section. Add an Actions line at the bottom with an owner. Keep the template short, because a long template becomes a form nobody fills in. The toggle guide shows how to build them.

Free, Plus or Business for a coaching workspace

Notion lists Free, Plus and Business plans on its pricing page. Free costs $0 per member per month. Plus costs $10 and Business costs $20, both per member per month. For coaching work, the upload limit matters more than people expect. The Free plan allows 5 MB per file upload, while paid plans allow 5 GB per file. Large recordings hit the Free limit quickly.

Two database limits matter for coaches who build large rollups. A database holds up to 250,000 rows and 500 properties. Each page's property data is limited to 2.5MB. A normal coaching setup stays far below both limits, but a company-wide rollup can grow faster than you expect.

Mistakes coaches make in Notion

• Copying the same retro into every team's workspace. Use one database with a Team property instead.
• Keeping coaching notes in a shared page. Use a private database and lock what you do not share.
• Turning sprints on for one team and forgetting the others. Check each Task database once.
• Adding a property for every idea. Each extra property makes the table harder to scan.
• Scrolling for old notes. Search with ⌘P or filter the database instead.

Where Lazur fits into a coach's day

Lazur is a voice assistant for the Mac that lives in the notch. Hold ⌥ ⌘ to ask about anything on screen, and Lazur answers out loud. It points at the thing you ask about. It does not click for you. Ask it to guide you, and it gives you one step at a time.

Dictation helps after a retro. Hold fn and speak the items, and clean, formatted text appears at the cursor in any app. Speak each item into its row while the room is still fresh. Then fix the wording by hand, because a sharp sentence matters more than a fast one.

Reminders keep follow-up honest. Lazur can set Apple Reminders and Calendar events by voice. Say the reminder once, then check Reminders later to confirm it is there. For reminders that live inside Notion, read our guide to reminders in Notion on Mac.

A weekly routine for sprints and retros

1. Monday: open the Sprint board and check the sprint goal in the Sprints database.
2. Midweek: open each team view and check the open retro actions.
3. Friday: run the retro from your template, then dictate the items into the Retro database.
4. Before the next sprint: set a reminder for each action owner.

Keep the routine small. Each step answers one question. Monday asks what the team is doing. Midweek asks what is stuck. Friday asks what the team learned. The retro database connects all three, so the answers stay in one place.

Start with one team and one database

Pick one team. Turn on sprints for its Task database, create the Retro database with a Team property, and run one retro from the template. Once that works, add the coaching log. If you plan to add more people, compare plans on the pricing page. If you want voice help while you do this, download Lazur for Mac. The free trial starts the first time you open the app, and no credit card is needed.