Idea Parking Lot

Have you ever had a brilliant idea in a meeting, but it ended up never being brought up or discussed because everyone just forgets about it? In meetings, sometimes it gets hard to stay on track and choose the most relevant topic to talk about. Especially if there are many people involved, ideas get thrown a lot. Some may even be forgotten and never brought up again. To make sure these ideas are captured for future discussion, you can use the Idea Parking Lot Matrix.

The Idea Parking Lot Matrix was developed by Jack Moran and Harry Lenderman from Public Health Foundation (PHF). It’s a Quality Improvement (QI) tool designed to streamline meetings by minimizing distractions and irrelevant discussions. Every comment or idea voiced out by a participant in the meeting is written down, so it can be researched further or brought up later in the next meeting.

In the board template above, we have implemented the Idea Parking Lot Matrix in Kanban Zone, with clear explicit agreements under each column to ensure a smooth flow of cards. Just like with a physical board and Post-it no