Sprint Kickoff Icebreaker: 24 Questions to Start the Sprint Right
A sprint kickoff is the one meeting where the team's energy sets the tone for the next one to two weeks — and most kickoffs spend their first five minutes on status updates instead of momentum. This pack is 24 questions about starts, launches, and teamwork, picked to open the meeting with something faster and more fun than a status round.
The questions range across sports starts, space launches, product-launch jargon, and a few genuinely useful agile terms — mixed difficulty on purpose, so a few are easy wins and a few will spark an argument (the Formula 1 lights question does, every time). Every answer is on this page if you want to skim it before hosting.
It runs as a live team quiz: share one link, everyone answers on their own device, and a live leaderboard updates after every question. No accounts, no setup — the whole point is that it's ready before your coffee is.
How to run this with your team
- Run it before you open the backlog. Ten minutes of trivia first gets the room warmed up and talking before anyone has to commit to a story estimate. Energy earned early carries into planning.
- Draw a subset, don't run all 24. The defaults draw a shuffled 12 of the 24 — about ten minutes at 20 seconds a question. Run the same pack again next sprint and most players will see a fresh set.
- Use Pause & Discuss on the close calls. When the room splits — the F1 starting-lights question usually does — pause on it and let people argue their case for thirty seconds before revealing. That's the actual energy this pack is for.
- Let the leaderboard carry into planning. Call out the standings right before you switch to the backlog. A team that's still mid-competition walks into planning more engaged than one coming off a status update.
The questions (24)
1.What is the traditional third word in a footrace's starting call, after "On your marks, get set..."?
- A.Go
- B.Now
- C.Run
- D.Sprint
Show answer
Go
2.In Scrum, a sprint is most commonly measured in what unit of time?
- A.Days
- B.Weeks
- C.Months
- D.Quarters
Show answer
Weeks
3.Which 1929 film is widely credited with inventing the dramatic countdown ("10, 9, 8...") before a launch?
- A.Metropolis
- B.Destination Moon
- C.Woman in the Moon
- D.The Day the Earth Stood Still
Show answer
Woman in the Moon
4.In many sports, what decides which team kicks off first?
- A.The visiting team always kicks first
- B.A pregame scrimmage
- C.The higher-ranked team automatically kicks
- D.A coin toss
Show answer
A coin toss
5.What does the nautical tradition of "christening" a new ship usually involve?
- A.Breaking a bottle against the hull
- B.Ringing a bell 100 times
- C.Painting the ship blue
- D.Releasing a flock of doves
Show answer
Breaking a bottle against the hull
6.Hewlett-Packard, often called the birthplace of Silicon Valley, was founded in what kind of building?
- A.An abandoned factory
- B.A garage
- C.A university lab
- D.A barn
Show answer
A garage
7.What is a project kickoff meeting typically meant to establish?
- A.The final deadline
- B.The budget
- C.Goals, scope, and roles
- D.Who's to blame for past delays
Show answer
Goals, scope, and roles
8.Usain Bolt's 100-metre world record time is closest to which of these?
- A.8.6 seconds
- B.9.1 seconds
- C.10.6 seconds
- D.9.6 seconds
Show answer
9.6 seconds
9.In rocketry, what does "T-minus" refer to?
- A.Countdown time remaining before launch
- B.The rocket's total thrust
- C.Its trajectory angle
- D.The temperature at liftoff
Show answer
Countdown time remaining before launch
10.The Olympic torch relay, now a fixture before every Games, was first introduced at which Olympics?
- A.Athens 1896
- B.Berlin 1936
- C.London 1948
- D.Paris 1924
Show answer
Berlin 1936
11.What is a "soft launch," most precisely, in business?
- A.A launch that gets delayed
- B.A launch with a big marketing budget
- C.A product release limited to a small group or region first
- D.A launch announced only internally
Show answer
A product release limited to a small group or region first
12.In sailing, what officially starts a race?
- A.The first boat to move
- B.A radio call from the harbor master
- C.Whichever boat has the wind
- D.A starting gun or signal at a set time
Show answer
A starting gun or signal at a set time
13.What's the term for moving before the starting signal in a race?
- A.A false start
- B.A jump start
- C.An early break
- D.A flying start
Show answer
A false start
14.In Formula 1, what signals the start of a race?
- A.A green flag waved by a marshal
- B.Five red lights that go out together
- C.A single horn blast
- D.A countdown clock reaching zero
Show answer
Five red lights that go out together
15.What is the term for a startup's first significant funding round?
- A.Root round
- B.Sprout round
- C.Seed round
- D.Sapling round
Show answer
Seed round
16.In a product launch, what does "MVP" stand for?
- A.Most Valuable Player
- B.Major Version Preview
- C.Multi-Version Platform
- D.Minimum Viable Product
Show answer
Minimum Viable Product
17.The idiom "starting from scratch" comes from a mark once scratched into the ground to show what?
- A.A starting line for a race
- B.A finish line
- C.A foul line
- D.A boundary for a game
Show answer
A starting line for a race
18.In its original sporting sense, what does "kick off" refer to?
- A.A penalty kick
- B.The opening kick that starts a soccer match
- C.The final kick of the match
- D.A kick used only in extra time
Show answer
The opening kick that starts a soccer match
19.Which rocket carried the first humans to the Moon in 1969?
- A.Gemini 7
- B.Sputnik 1
- C.Apollo 11's Saturn V
- D.Falcon 9
Show answer
Apollo 11's Saturn V
20.In track and field relay races, what is passed between teammates at the start of each leg?
- A.A flag
- B.A stopwatch
- C.A ribbon
- D.A baton
Show answer
A baton
21.What does it mean to "greenlight" a project?
- A.Approve it to move forward
- B.Cancel it
- C.Delay it indefinitely
- D.Send it back for revisions
Show answer
Approve it to move forward
22.Which explorer's ships were the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María?
- A.Ferdinand Magellan
- B.Christopher Columbus
- C.Vasco da Gama
- D.James Cook
Show answer
Christopher Columbus
23.In agile teams, what is a "sprint goal" meant to describe?
- A.The individual task list for the week
- B.The team's velocity score
- C.A single, shared objective the whole sprint works toward
- D.The next release date only
Show answer
A single, shared objective the whole sprint works toward
24.What is the literal origin of the word "marathon," the race?
- A.A Roman unit of distance
- B.The name of the first runner
- C.A Latin word meaning "long run"
- D.A Greek town where a famous battle was fought
Show answer
A Greek town where a famous battle was fought
FAQ
How long does this take?
About 10 minutes: hosting draws 12 questions at 20 seconds each, plus the leaderboard moments in between. Fits neatly into the first ten minutes of a kickoff call, before planning gets serious.
Do players need accounts?
No. Your team joins with a link in their browser — no signups, no app, no player setup. Nothing to install before the sprint starts.
Is this only for Scrum or agile teams?
No — most of the questions aren't agile-specific at all. It works for any team opening a new phase of work, whether you call it a sprint, a cycle, or just "this week's plan."