Blind Agile Voting: Prevent Vote Copying in Planning Poker
Junior dev sees senior engineer's 3-point vote flash on screen before committing their own. Changes vote from 8 to 5 to "not look wrong." Blind voting ensures simultaneous reveal—no one sees others' estimates before voting.
How Vote Copying Happens
- Sequential reveal: Tool shows votes one-by-one due to network lag
- Vote count leaks: "5 voted... now 6" tips off who voted what
- Screen share accidents: Facilitator's screen shows results too early
- Verbal hints: "Oh interesting, wide spread" before reveal
Why Blind Voting Matters
Planning poker explicitly designed to prevent anchor bias. When votes aren't truly blind, you lose core benefit: independent thought.
True Simultaneous Reveal
All cards must appear within 200ms across all screens. Server-side synchronized reveal, not client-side triggers.
Alignlee uses WebSocket synchronization for sub-200ms simultaneous card reveal.
Testing Blindness
- Join session from 2 devices
- Vote from both
- Record reveal on both screens
- Compare timestamps
Pass: ≤500ms difference
Fail: 2+ seconds, sequential reveal