Why Stickers and Sticker Labels
Stickers are small, powerful ways to communicate and collaborate at speed. In the context of PI Planning and execution, a sticky note with a sticker is information that communicates its own status - without anyone having to ask.
The Lean Principle at work here is Visual Management; the idea that the most important information is immediately visible and understandable without explanation. Think of it like traffic lights: you don't need to read a manual to know what a red light means. Stickers bring that same instant clarity to your piplanning.io Boards.
Consider how Stickers enhance this typical scenario:
A team member scanning 40 sticky notes during the Management Sync meeting can immediately spot which Features are at risk, understand what decisions have been made, and which items are blocked without reading every card in detail.
This directly reduces waste in the Lean sense: wasted time checking what Dependencies are still at risk before the Management Sync, stakeholders asking status questions in ceremonies, wasted effort chasing owners for updates, and wasted attention trying to parse a wall of undifferentiated sticky notes. Stickers let the board speak for itself.
From a SAFe and Agile perspective, stickers reinforce two of the most important values:
Transparency; the current state of work is visible to everyone on the ART, not locked in someone's head or a spreadsheet.
Collaboration; when working agreements are encoded as stickers, every team member speaks the same visual language. There's no ambiguity about what "needs attention" or "unresolved" looks like.
During a PI Event — where you may have dozens of teams, hundreds of sticky notes, and very limited time — stickers are what keep the board readable, actionable, and current.
Sticker Labels have a direct impact on how clearly your ST/ART communicates during planning and execution.
The goal with Sticker Labels; is a predefined set of stickers that reflects your team's working agreements, so everyone uses the same visual vocabulary from day one.
Sticker Labels? The right Sticker Labels codify your Working Agreements, and ensure that everyone uses the same visual vocabulary from the get-go.
Configuring Sticker Labels for the PI Session
It's completely up to you to give the sticker icons their own purpose using Sticker Labels.
Setting up Sticker Labels before your PI Event is an admin task. This is part of the configuration of the PI Session > #1 General tab > Sticky Notes sub-tab.
Here are some examples we've seen at our customers
A Blue Question Mark indicates that a team has a question for Product Management
A Green Flag on a Dependency indicates that the dependency is resolved; the enabling team has accepted the Dependency in the Iteration it was requested and planned the work required to resolve it.
An Orange Exclamation Mark indicates an impediment which should be addressed by the RTE or by other teams like Security or Architecture.
Be creative and make sure that your Working Agreements are understood by all collaborators. Codify your Working Agreements with the Sticker Labels.
Sticker Label Pro Tips
Codify your Working Agreements with the Sticker Labels.
Use Search and filter on Stickers to facilitate Daily Stand-ups, Scrum of Scrum (SoS), Management Stakeholder syncs etc. Filtering the Boards based on Stickers is an effective way to focus on what matters (noise to signal ratio).
Who configures the Sticker Labels?
PI Admins or Admins responsible for the PI Session set up configure the Stickers and Sticker Labels in the PI Session setup. Go to tab #1 General > Sticky Notes tab in the PI Session.
When to set up the Sticker Labels?
Before the PI Planning event begins, ideally as part of your ART or Solution Train readiness checklist.
Steps to Configure Sticker Labels
Edit the PI Session and navigate to tab #1 General > Sticky Notes tab
Review your ART/ST's Working Agreements before creating Sticker Labels. Ask: What statuses does a sticky note need to communicate? What decisions or flags are most common in our PI Events? Common categories to consider:
Status — e.g., In Progress, Blocked, Done, At Risk
Decisions — e.g., Accepted, Deferred, Escalated
Working Agreements — e.g., Dependency Confirmed, Needs Refinement, Ready for PI
For each Sticker Icon color combination enter the Label that communicates the appropriate Status or Working Agreement for that Sticker. Please consider:
Short and concise Label names with 2–3 word maximum
Curate your Sticker list; delete unnecessary Sticker icons
A total of 36 sticker icons are allowed.
As the Admin or PI Admin preparing the PI Session, you can curate the list of Stickers so you only display the Stickers that are relevant.
Delete all unnecessary Sticker icons
Reorder the Stickers to change the order which they appear in the dropdown select box for the end users.
Recommendations and Tips for effective Sticker Labels:
Use consistent color logic — for example, red for blockers, green for confirmed/done, yellow for caution or at-risk items.
Limit the total number of stickers to what your ART will realistically use. A library many stickers without labels may create the same confusion as no stickers at all. A focused set of 6–10, agreed upon by the ART, is far more effective.
Share and review the sticker set with Scrum Masters and team leads before the PI Event so the labels reflect shared working agreements — not just one person's interpretation.
Treat your sticker set as a set of code or codified living Working Agreements. Review it at the end of each PI and retire labels that weren't used, or add ones that filled a gap you hadn't anticipated.
Default Sticker Lables in new PI Sessions
Adding and Removing a Sticker
Adding a Sticker
Click the Sticker element in the Sticky's top right corner,
Select the sticker from the Sticker dropdown menu.
Removing a Sticker
Click the active Sticker in the top right of the Sticky Note.
Select the
No stickeroption.