@nat recently shared how we think and discuss story sizing while working in StoryTime. Here's the Linkedin post.
Instead of pointing, the StoryTime team uses rock paper scissors
Rock - this story is good to go
Paper - needs more detail/I have questions
Scissors - story is too big, we need to cut it up
We're seriously considering incorporating this thinking into some of the interactions we want in the UI. Right now, we only have the "Ready" of "Unready" button states to indicate that a story is good to go or not, aka "playable".
We can't think of any conversations that were had via pointing that can't be more effectively had with a similar game of "rock, paper, scissors", which for the curious: descends from a very old game with multiple incarnations found in Japan and China. We found the familiar motions helpful.
You get the benefit of the pointing ritual, but without the social posturing of trying to prove your engineering street cred through the guessing game of estimates.
Instead, we want to encourage the conversation toward shared understanding of story shape and "playability". This, we have experienced, leads to a much more direct conversation about the actual conversation needed for work to begin and succeed. If a story is Rocks all around, just count it as 1.
Just. Count. Stories.
Try it out on your team during your IPM (Iteration Planning Meeting) and let us know what you think!