Fibonacci vs T-shirt sizes for story points
When to use Fibonacci planning poker vs T-shirt sizes—practical deck advice for teams that estimate effort without overthinking the scale.
Teams fight about scales more than they fight about the work. Pick one deck and stick with it for a while.
Fibonacci (1, 2, 3, 5, 8…) is what most engineering teams expect. The gaps push people to choose relative effort instead of fake precision. I default to it for product backlogs.
T-shirt sizes (S, M, L…) are friendlier when the room mixes engineers with stakeholders who do not live in story points. Useful for early roadmap shaping—not for sprint capacity math.
In Pointing Space you can switch decks when the session needs it. My rule for managers: one scale per meeting, write the topic on the hand, and stop re-litigating the deck mid-vote.
Want to try it live? Create a free planning poker room on Pointing Space.