I believe I may have been inspired for this retrospective by Innovation Games Speed Boat game used for Identifying features that are holding you back. It is a fun way to gather opportunities, risks and problems.
Other frameworks like the Sailboat retrospective, the Rose, Bud, and Thorn retrospective, and Start, Stop and Continue retrospective are also commonly used.I use the sailboat retrospective as an activity to gather information for Sprint Retrospectives, Release Retrospectives or even when I go in as a coach to find out where teams are. Some teams use the Mad, Sad, and Glad framework to surface disappointments, highlights, and frustrations from the previous sprint. Try using different frameworks for your retrospective.Explore other agile and scrum templates to level up your agile project management and improve outcomes across retros, postmortems, brainstorming, standups, and more workflows.Use an icebreaker to get team members warmed up and engaged for the retrospective session.Define specific action items in a start, stop, continue format by pulling sticky notes from each section of the template.Tips for running effective retrospectives This quadrant covers how the team should take action, including what they should do next, what specific things should change, and what needs to extend beyond the meeting.Īfter identifying what went well and what went poorly, teams can easily create actionable steps that are both measurable and easily understood. Define next steps and action itemsĬreating actionable steps for improvement is the driving purpose of a quick retrospective. All of this helps form the action items needed in the next step.
Team members can use the notes from what went well and what went poorly to inspire these ideas. Ideas include improvement opportunities, ideas for future work as a team, and areas of opportunity for the next project.
This quadrant is dedicated to the teams’ ideas. Reflect on processes that were frustrating or steps that caused friction.īy identifying the root causes of what went poorly, team members can contribute ideas on what to improve for next time. This should include where the team faced problems and what held them back. In this quadrant, your team repeats the above exercise, only this time for what went poorly. These thoughts should encompass what went well, what should be celebrated, and specific call-outs for progress made and jobs well done. Have each team member work individually creating sticky notes on what they believe went well during the project. With the remaining time, discuss notes in each quadrant. Working silently and individually, have each participant create a few sticky notes in all four quadrants for about five minutes. Outline the main focus for the retrospective session and start adding ideas to the template. Keep these key elements in mind when going through the following steps: 1. When you create a template you’ll work with four key quadrants: This retrospective template creates an easy-to-follow foundation for evaluating and improving your work. Identify next steps and action items for the next sprint or project.Improve decision-making and problem-solving.Identify opportunities for continuous improvment.This sprint retrospective template helps agile teams: A facilitator (often a project manager or scrum master) guides this meeting to ensure team members understand objectives and provide ideas on how to achieve them. Retrospectives meetings are often held after a sprint review to discuss what went well and what needs improvement. This simple structure is useful both alone or in groups. Evaluate what went well, what went poorly, what ideas the group has for improvement, and how the group should take action for next time. Use this template to reflect on recent work with your team.