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Christian Heidemeyer

42 Fun & Creative Retrospective Icebreakers breaking any Ice

Are you looking for unusual icebreakers for the check-in or retrospective check-in methods for your next retrospective? I'm glad to hear that, because a good, interactive check-in or icebreaker can have a very positive effect on the entire retrospective. That's why we've developed some icebreaker questions to help you with that.

Retrospective Icebreaker Methods, Questions & Icebreakers

Creative kickstart for your retrospective

The retro begins with a warm-up: The first of five phase of a retrospective. Not only as a psychologist I can confirm that the perfect check-in has one goal above all: Create psychological safety. In the best case, even rather introverted team members feel a little more confident after this warm-up phase, making it easier for them to open up during the actual retrospective.

How can you achieve this effect? You could write a book about that, but in a nutshell, by showing that everyone on the team is an imperfect human being. Everyone on the team makes mistakes – and that's perfectly fine. By the way, I actually wrote an eBook about this: 12 workshops for team flow & mindset change.

Creative check-in questions and icebreakers to promote psychological safety

Following this rationale, the very first icebreaker could look like this:

 

  • Looking at the last weeks (or sprint), what was your favorite mistake (that might or might not triggered a learning)?
  • Rather indirectly, showing that everyone can learn something new: What have you learned over the last weeks (both private or professionally)?
  • Rather indirectly, emphasizing that team members need each other: When was the last time you said "thank you" to a team mate? Name the situation. In case you didn't yet articulate your thankfulness, do it now.

Of course, not every icebreaker has to be focused on this goal. You can also focus on laying the stage for the actual retrospective - or simply giving everyone a laugh. Thus, here are some more potential retrospective check in questions

retrospective check in questions icebreaker

 

Retrospective Check In questions – an example

Retrospective Check-in questions, methods & icebreaker classics

The following check-ins and icebreakers are a few classics.

  • How has your day been so far?
  • In the last week(s): What has given you energy and what has been draining your energy?
  • What's giving you energy and joy at the moment?
  • What has surprised you positively lately?
  • What makes you excited about this retrospective?
  • What was the task that took most of your time last week?
  • What was the best moment of your day yesterday?
  • Name one good thing and one bad thing about your day so far.
  • On a scale of 0 (very bad) to 10 (very good), how ready/focused are you for/on this meeting right now?

Retrospective Check-in Questions & Icebreakers for getting to know each other

If your team doesn't know each other very well yet, the following icebreakers are a good way to get to know the new team.

  • If you could only eat one meal for the rest of the week, what would it be?
  • If you had the rest of the day off, what would you do with that time?
  • What is a new and interesting thing you dealt with recently?
  • What's been a big news (think of newspapers, TV etc.) lately that you are positively excited about?

More energy in (virtual or remote) space

In my experience, there are certain teams that benefit from becoming a little more active, possibly even physically. 

The following smaller exercises or questions go a little more in this direction and should serve as good inspiration.

  • Exercise: "Stand up (or raise your hand) if you are in this sprint..."
    👉 ...have learned a new tool.
    👉 ...had a small sense of achievement.
    👉 ...had more meetings than planned.
  • Exercise: "Draw a cat in 10 seconds with your eyes closed."
    👉 A quick, fun drawing exercise that will make you laugh.
  • Exercise: "Lightning word association"
    👉 The moderator says "sprint", everyone spontaneously names a word in turn (e.g. stress, fun, bugs, success...).
  • Emoji mood check: Everyone shares their current state of mind with an emoji or a suitable image.
  • Draw your current mood: Everyone draws their mood on a virtual or real whiteboard.
  • GIF competition: Everyone posts a GIF that describes their current state of mind.
  • One Word Icebreaker: Everyone describes the last working period with a single word.
  • (Virtual) high-five: Someone raises their hand, says something positive, and the others who feel the same way give a (remote or virtual) high-five – Alternatively, they can also stand up.
  • Escape room puzzle: You solve a small logical puzzle or brain teaser together.
  • My day in one color: Everyone names a color that describes their current state ("Today I feel like blue – calm and focused").
  • Your slogan for the last sprint: Create short, funny advertising slogans ("Code fast, debug later!").
  • What is your Spirit Animal for today: Everyone names an animal that reflects their current energy ("I am a turtle – slow, but getting there!").

To give you another format: Of course, you can also design the check-in visually. Here, too, methods that stimulate creativity and possibly have a reference to the last Scrum Sprint are suitable.

Here you can find some nice examples of retrospective check-in games: From our Retrospective & Health Check Tool – Echometer.

Born to lie 👼

1. Retro game on online whiteboard

Duration: 10-20 minutes | Aim: Getting to know each other, analyzing team communication, retrospective games for new teams
Best retrospective games online born to lie
Click on the screenshot for an overview of the retro game.

Idea: Everyone in the team marks two places on a map - and explains why they were born there. In one of them, they were really born. The other place is a lie.

Open Retro With This Game Now
  1. Every team member on their own marks the place where they have been born and one additional place (possible on a digital whiteboard). 
  2. Timebox 5 minutes: Next, they have to come up with an explanation for both places why they have been born there.

    For example, this is what Julia Rodriguez would say:
    A) As you all know, I have been born right around the corner in New York, I mean, this is why I work here and why I am visiting my family every weekend.
    B) As you all know, my family name is Rodriguez. I am actually from Mexico City, where I was born 39 years ago. My family moved to the US shortly after my birthday, because my Dad started working here.
    Both make sense – what's correct?

  3. Timebox 1 minute per person: The explanation for both places is shared one by one. After one person shared their truth and a lie, everyone in the team guesses which place is the true place of birth.
  4. In the end, you can delete the “lies” from the map - and you should have a nice map of where the team is from that you might even want to add to your mutual team page.

Scrum Sprint Retrospective Games: Our Sprint Symphony 🎹

16. Remote retrospective game on online whiteboard

Duration: 5-15 minutes | Goal: Setting the stage
Click on the screenshot for an overview of the retro game.

Idea: If our last sprint would be a song, what would be the title? Let them choose from given songs or invent their own titles.

Open Retro With This Game Now

One of the rather quick retrospective games:

  1. You give the instructions.
  2. 1-2 minute timebox: Everyone chooses a song title from the given list of songs (see screenshot of the whiteboard) or takes a different one.
    Everyone is free to change the title of a song. For example, someone might change the title “Eye of the tiger” from Survivor to “Eye of the customer” (e.g., because they met the actual customer for the very first time).
  3. The person who was the first to make a decision begins to explain their choice and hands over to the next person until everyone gave feedback.
  • "Something Just Like This" by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay
  • I Took a Pill in Ibiza by Mike Posner
  • "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele
  • "The Twist" by Chubby Checker
  • "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" by Baccarat
  • "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO
  • „Bad Romance“ by Lady Gaga
  • „Shape of You“ by Ed Sheeran
  • "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets
  • "Wind of Change" by Scorpions
  • "Silent Night" by Bing Crosby
  • "I Gotta Feeling" by Black Eyed Peas
  • "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson (featuring Bruno Mars)
  • „Call Me Maybe“ by Carly Rae Jepsen
  • "Time to Say Goodbye" by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman
  • "I Don't Care" by Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber
  • Your favorite songs...

Retrospective games for distributed teams: Sprint Animals 🐷

Retro game on the online whiteboard

Duration: 5-15 minutes | Goal: Setting the stage
Sprint Animals best retrospective game online
Click on the screenshot for an overview of the retro game.

Idea: If our last sprint would be a face, which one would it be? Let them choose from the given images and explain their choice.

Open Retro With This Game Now

The Retrospective Riddle 🕵🏻‍♂️

7. Online Whiteboard Game (Retrospective games ideas)

Duration: 45-90 minutes | Goal: Reflecting on the teamwork in general and the last sprint
Best retrospective games online - agile retrospective riddle
Click on the screenshot for an overview of the retro game.

Idea: A wise wizard has 3 secret, magic questions. Answering them would help the team a lot to improve. But to get to know these questions, the team has to solve 3 riddles first.

Open Retro With This Game Now
  1. You give an overview over the agenda of today's retrospective. 
  2. 3 minute timebox: The first riddle is presented (see whiteboard above). The team has to solve it as fast as possible. If they are faster than 3 minutes, the remaining time will be added on the time to solve the next riddle. 
  3. 5 minute timebox: The first magic question (a creative retrospective question) from our wizard is presented. E.g.: When thinking about my team, what don't I hear that should be heard?
  4. 20 minute timebox: Repeat step 2 and 3 with the second and then third riddle, maybe adding the remaining time from the last round. 
  5. Choose from your typical repertoire of retrospective questions to suggest questions. These are some suggestions of magic questions that the wizard could ask:
    1. When I think about my team, what am I not hearing that should be heard?
    2. What are you thankful for when you think about the past few weeks?
    3. What would James Bond do if he had the challenges we face?
    4. Imagine if we hadn't achieved our team goal. What would have been the reason we didn't achieve it?
  6. From now on you proceed with the typical 5 phases of an agile retrospective. 
  7. Explaining feedback: After everyone has finished answering the final magic question, everyone's thoughts (and notes) are shared. At this point there is no discussion.
  8. Prioritization: Each team member has 3 digital points to vote on. Now put the points where you think there is still room for improvement.
  9. Discussion: Discuss the areas that have the most votes. Do you want to put down an action item? 
  10. Action items: Name a specific person who is responsible for this measure. I recommend not to record more than 3 measures – focus liber on quality instead of quantity (more on this in our post: 7 tips for great action items).
 
  1. You want to boil a two-minute egg. If you only have a three-minute timer (hourglass), a four-minute timer, and a five-minute timer, how can you boil the egg for only two minutes?
    1. Answer: Once the water is boiling, turn the three-minute timer and five-minute timer over. When the three-minute timer runs out, put the egg in the boiling water. When the five-minute timer runs out, two minutes have elapsed and it is time to take the egg out of the water. You don't need the four-minute timer for this riddle.
  2. Two fathers and two sons went fishing one day. They were there the whole day and only caught 3 fish. One father said, that is enough for all of us, we will have one each. How can this be possible?
    1. Answer: There was the father, his son, and his son's son. This equals 2 fathers and 2 sons for a total of 3!
  3. Forward I am heavy, but backward I am not. What am I?
    1. The word Ton.
  4. Which of the following words don't belong in the group and why? CORSET, COSTER, SECTOR, ESCORT, COURTS 
    1. Courts. All of the others are anagrams of each other.
  5. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him underwater for over 5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?
    1. Answer: The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, developed it, and hung it up to dry.
  6. Attention, only works in English and by reading aloud: There are 30 cows in a field, and 28 chickens. How many didn't?
    1. Listen closely: 30 cows, and twenty-eight chickens. Say EIGHT and ATE. They sound the same. Therefore, it means 20 ATE chickens. 30-20=10, so 10 cows didn't eat any chickens.
  7. Sometimes I am born in silence, Other times, no. I am unseen, But I make my presence known. In time, I fade without a trace. I harm no one, but I am unpopular with all. What am I?
    1. Answer: A fart.
  8. I am six letters. When you take one away I am twelve. What am I?
    1. The word "Dozens".
  9. What type of music do rabbits listen to? 
    1. Fun answer: Hip-hop.

Fun Retro Games Agile: Movie Time 🍿

18. Remote retrospective game on online whiteboard

Duration: 5-15 minutes | Goal: Setting the stage
Click on the screenshot for an overview of the retro game.

Idea: If our last sprint was a movie, what would the title be? Let the team choose from predefined films or invent their own titles.

Open Retro With This Game Now

One of the simple, good retrospective games:

  1. You give the instructions.
  2. 1-2 minute timebox: Everyone chooses a movie title from the given list of songs (see screenshot of the whiteboard or toggle below) or takes a different one. 
    Everyone is free to change the title of a movie. For example, someone might change the title “Lord of the rings” to “Lord of the bugs”. That’s a funny one. 
  3. The person who was the first to make a decision begins to explain their choice and hands over to the next person until everyone gave feedback.
  1. Gold fingers
  2. Titanic
  3. Lord of the Rings
  4. Back to the future
  5. Rain man
  6. Avatar
  7. The Birth of a Nation
  8. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  9. Paranormal Activity
  10. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
  11. Furious 7
  12. Gone with the wind
  13. Doctor Zhivago
  14. Spider-Man: No Way Home
  15. ET the Extra-Terrestrial
  16. ...

If you like this game you can find more here: The 15 Best Online Retrospective Games. Feel free to check them out 🙂

 

Fun & creative Retrospective Check In Questions & Icebreakers

  • Explain the course of your week as a weather report and forecast.
  • What adjective best describes your current emotional state?
  • If your last week was a movie - what would have been the headline?
  • If your last week was a song – what would it be called?
  • If your last week was a newspaper report – what would the headline be?
  • Describe the latest revelation you had.
  • With whom in our organization would you like to switch roles tomorrow and why?

Quick health check's can also be a fun check-in for retrospective. In health checks, different statements are presented to the team and each team member expresses agreement on a scale. 

I have to add that you often drift into the data gathering phase and discussions when doing so – but that should be the goal of icebreakers anyway. 

You can open a Health Check Retrospective Check-In directly with our Health Check & Retro tool Echometer and run it online with your team (Echometer- without registration). For example, here is our template on the theme of team spirit – feel free to take a look:

Open this 'Health Check' Check-In now

Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a scale.

Team Radar Tool Health Check Retrospective
  • Appreciation: My colleagues appreciate my contribution to the team.
  • Team Spirit: There is a trusting working atmosphere in our team.
  • Transparency: Everyone in my team knows who is currently working on what.
  • Recovery & Breaks: I have enough room for breaks in which I can draw new energy.
  • Meeting culture: Our meetings are well structured, yet leave room for creativity and new ideas.
  • Support: In my team, each team member passes on their individual knowledge and experience.

Conclusion – Retrospective Icebreaker Questions

I hope this has given you some ideas for your next retrospective. If you'd like to try more interactive check-ins (remote and in-office), feel free to visit the linked post on the best retrospective formats for any situation: 3 interactive check-ins on a whiteboard. By the way, we also have many seasonal retrospective ideas in our tool (for example: 6 Thanksgiving Retrospective Ideas) – like to just take a look and browse a little.

By the way, if you are still looking for a suitable retro board (with 60+ agile retrospective formats), this post can help you: Comparing the 6 best retrospective boards 

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Need a team boost? Do this: The Spotify Health Check Retrospective!

First Health question: "😍 We love going to work, and have great fun working together."

Sounds good? Try our retro tool for free below.

Open this retro now

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FAQ about the online retrospective tool

No, you do not need to log in to Echometer or register to test the Retro Board and Retro Tool in Echometer.

You can try out Echometer's Retro Board via the following link without logging in: Try a Practice Round

First, simply register for free in Echometer. Then navigate to the workspace for which you would like to purchase the retro tool. If you haven't already done so, you can do so here: Create account in Echometer 1:1 tool

You can then manage your subscription (for both the retro tool and the 1:1 software) within the workspace settings.

You can choose from various payment methods when upgrading.

If you do not have access to your company's credit card yourself, you can simply add a buyer as a workspace admin in your Echometer workspace so that this admin can carry out the upgrade for you.

In Echometer there are two separate software solutions that are available within each workspace in Echometer:

  • 1:1 tool: Software for planning and conducting 1:1 meetings and tracking employee development
  • Retrospective tool: Software for planning and moderating retrospectives and tracking team development through team health checks

Both are independent software solutions, so they can be used separately from each other.

However, they work according to the same principles and aim to achieve the same added value: The continuous improvement of agile teams. In this respect, the simultaneous use of both software solutions is recommended.

Yes, you can assign administration rights to any number of users at both team level and workspace level. Please note the following:

  • Only workspace admins can take out and manage a Echometer subscription for a Echometer workspace.
  • Only workspace admins can create additional teams and name or remove additional workspace admins.
  • Team admins can appoint and remove additional team admins and team members for their team

If an agile team does not yet have much experience with retrospectives, a tool that effectively guides you through the retrospective and offers many templates is recommended:

  • Echometer is known not only for being an intuitive online retro board, but also for offering a very effective guided flow through the retrospective. At the same time, Echometer offers whiteboards that can be flexibly integrated into the retrospective. This makes Echometer very beginner-friendly.
  • Echometer also has extremely versatile and creative templates for retrospectives and team Health Checks that stimulate team reflection. Inexperienced teams in particular are very grateful for the food for thought in Echometer.

This makes Echometer the best software recommendation for beginners with agile retrospectives or Scrum beginners. By the way, you can try out Echometer for free without logging in: Echometer Try out the retro tool

Yes, you can collect and measure the eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) in Echometer's Health Checks and surveys for retrospectives.

The eNPS can be evaluated in Echometer both at team level and across teams. For example, you can use the heat map in the Workspace Health Dashboard for cross-team evaluation.

The Echometer Retrospective software is designed to guide teams through the retrospective process with maximum ease and effectiveness, following best practices.

The steps and their sequence can be customized using the navigation within the retro. By default, a retrospective in Echometer is structured in this way:

  • Icebreaker
  • Review of open measures from past retros
  • Collect feedback (first Health Checks, then open questions)
  • Prioritization of feedback
  • Deriving action items
  • Conclusion of the retrospective with the "ROTI score" (Return on Time Invested)

Additional whiteboards (e.g. for workshops, for analyzing problems or for brainstorming measures) can also be added spontaneously at any point using the Retrospective navigation.

Yes, the Echometer Retrospective Tool offers various export options for retrospectives.

The most popular method is to generate a PDF that contains the feedback, the votes from the prioritization and the measures of the retrospective. It is also possible to share the retrospective via a sharing link.

A summary of the retrospective is also automatically sent to other participants by email after the retrospective, provided they are registered as team members in the team.

Yes, the online retrospective tool Echometer is one of the few retrospective software tools that also optimally supports the recording and tracking of measures:

  • Integration: You can also record measures directly in Jira via an integration.
  • Automatic follow-up: All open measures from past retros appear automatically in the measure review of the next retrospective for tracking purposes. This gives the team an overview of which measures are currently still open and creates a commitment to implementing the agreed measures.
  • Reminders: Measures are assigned to a person responsible, who automatically receives a reminder email when the measure is created so that the measure is not forgotten. In addition, each participant can flexibly receive action reminders via email and manage the action status at any time in the Echometer Retro Tool.

This means that Echometer's tool for team retrospectives has extensive and well thought-out functions for action tracking.

Yes, Echometer allows grouping and prioritizing (voting on points) of feedback on the Retrospective Board.

All participants can simply drag and drop cards onto each other and group them together.

There are 2 modes for prioritizing:

  • In "Live Voting" (the recommended mode), the moderator selects how many votes each participant should have and then starts the hidden voting. As soon as all votes have been cast, the moderator can close the live voting. During the voting, you can see how many votes are still to be awarded. After the voting is closed, the cards in the columns are automatically sorted in descending order so that the cards with the most votes are at the top.
  • In "Facilitated Voting" mode, the moderator simply selects how many votes are allocated to each topic. This mode is only necessary in exceptional cases.

Feedback can be optimally processed in the team using Echometer and the measures derived from it can also be easily recorded in Echometer in direct connection with the feedback.

Yes, with the online retrospective software Echometer you can collect asynchronous feedback on the retrospective in advance via a survey.

This means that obtaining feedback is asynchronous and you can make the most of the time spent together in retrospect.

Yes, absolutely: The online retrospective software Echometer is optimized for distributed teams working remotely and includes various options for interacting with each other in real time.

Both the retrospectives and the whiteboards are synchronized in real time for all participants and you can also optionally display your colleagues' cursors.

Yes, the online retrospective tool Echometer is a free tool that you can try out without logging in.

You can get started right away using this link: Echometer Retro Tool without login.

To invite other participants to your online retrospective in Echometer, you will need to register. Participants only need to enter their email address to join the retrospective, but do not need to log in.

After the retrospective, participants can optionally log in to access the summary even after the retrospective has ended.

Yes, Echometer offers many high-quality templates for retrospectives and the respective steps of a retrospective.

Echometer is the retrospective software tool with probably the most integrated retrospective template ideas and patterns:

  • The retro templates in Echometer contain sample questions for the retro board. These are often creatively based on specific topics in –, such as the "Kart racing retrospective" or the "Time travel retrospective".
  • Some retro templates also contain templates for Health Checks. For example, to measure the Spotify Health Check or psychological safety in the team.
  • When creating a team, you can choose from various team templates for management teams or scrum teams, for example. The team templates then put together a suitable team Health Check for the team.
  • For icebreakers in the retrospective, Echometer has over 50 ideas for sample questions that can be used spontaneously and randomly in a retrospective via a random generator.
  • And then there are whiteboard templates in Echometer, which contain ideas for check-ins, team building and the development of measures.

One of the greatest strengths of the Echometer Retro Tool are the various templates for retrospectives, which can be used as patterns for the creative design of your own retrospectives.

Here is a short list of the samples as an insight into the retrospective templates:

  • Happy, Wondering, Sad
  • Three Little Pigs
  • Team Morale Health Check
  • Easter and Christmas retrospective templates
  • DORA Retrospective
  • 5 agile values Health Check
  • Spotify Squad Health Check Radar
  • Psychological safety Health Check
  • DORA Retrospective
  • Unique retrospective templates such as the "7 Dwarfs Retrospective" or the "Football Retrospective"

If you are interested in the Retrospective Tools templates, take a quick look at the tool: Echometer Retro Templates & Templates

Yes, Echometer is an online tool for retrospectives that offers Jira integration.

With the Jira integration in Echometer, measures from Echometer can be created in Jira boards with a single click.

This makes Echometer a good retrospective software tool if your team is already using Jira.

Echometer is not available in the Atlassian Marketplace, but as separate software via my.echometerapp.com callable.

Yes, Echometer can be called a starfish retrospective tool, because with Echometer you can easily perform the starfish retrospective on an interactive online retrospective board.

Hot tip: If you are interested in the Starfish Retrospective, take a quick look at Echometer. Because the special thing about Echometer is that you can try out the starfish retrospective immediately (time-saving, without logging in) at this link: Echometer Starfish Retrospective Access without login

The Echometer Sprint Retrospective software has very extensive features, both for beginners and experts. The following features form the core of the tool:

  • Structured retrospective flow with integrated whiteboards for flexible brainstorming on individual focus topics
  • Retrospective board for brainstorming, presenting, grouping and voting with live collaboration
  • Moderator tools such as a timer, anonymity settings and control over the agenda step (focused for all participants)
  • Integrated tracking of measures from past retrospectives with automatic resubmission and incl. Jira integration
  • Unbiased brainstorming: Concealed cards on the retro board as well as on the integrated whiteboards prevent participants from influencing each other during the brainstorming session.
  • Simple, quick setup of the tool: Many users report that they were able to start their first retrospective in less than 10 minutes.

The following features are Echometer's unique selling points that are relevant for experienced Scrum Masters and team leaders:

  • Dashboard with retrospective history, including duration of the retrospective, number of participants and ROTI score
  • PDF and Markdown export of the retrospective after completion
  • The retrospective can take place asynchronously (e.g. also via a survey that is sent out before the retro) or in real time
  • Anonymous feedback via survey or on the Retrospective Board
  • Anonymous voting and prioritization of feedback on the retrospective board by awarding points
  • Query or measurement of the "ROTI score" (i.e. Return on Time Invested) after the retrospective for continuous evaluation and improvement of the retrospective by team members
  • Creation of Health Check surveys or pulse surveys as a happiness check and mood barometer in order to recognize trends (e.g. increasing dissatisfaction) in the team at an early stage
  • Health Check KPIs and agile metrics in the analysis dashboard including history
  • Health Check Surveys or pulse surveys also possible across teams

The Echometer Retrospective Tool offers the following features for retrospective template ideas, questions and samples:

  • 50+ Retrospective Template Ideas including Keep Stop Start, Happy Wondering Sad and the Starfish Retrospective
  • 200+ Retrospective Health Check questions and templates
  • Retrospective Icebreaker Library with 50+ fun retrospective check-ins to promote psychological safety and team spirit etc.
  • Whiteboard templates for visual, interactive retrospective icebreakers (including seasonal highlights for e.g. Easter and Christmas)
  • Whiteboard templates to structure and facilitate the creation of measures

Yes, the retrospective software tool Echometer is easy to use even for beginners who are not yet familiar with retrospectives.

Many users report that they were able to carry out their first retrospective in Echometer in less than 10 minutes of preparation!

Thanks to the structured process in Echometer, carrying out the retrospective is also very easy.

On the testimonial page of Echometer you will find numerous confirmed user reviews: Echometer Testimonials

Echometer is the best software tool for retrospectives compared to alternative retrospective software tools such as Retrium, EasyRetro, Reetro, Neetro and TeamRetro for three reasons:

  1. Large selection of creative templates for retrospectives: Users of Echometer confirm that Echometer has a uniquely wide range of retro board ideas.
  2. Echometer has a simple and intuitive structure for retrospectives that guides teams through retrospectives using best practices. This also makes Echometer very beginner-friendly.
  3. Echometer offers a generous free version.

Users of Echometer particularly appreciate the unique function of Echometer to insert Health Checks into their agile retrospectives: These agile Health Checks make a massive contribution to stimulating team reflection and actively involving every team member in the retrospective.

To summarize, even alternative retrospective software tools such as Parabol do not have the unique features of the Echometer retrospective tool, which are both simple and effective. Therefore, it can be said that Echometer is the best software app for conducting agile sprint retrospective meetings.

Yes, in Echometer you can get anonymous feedback from the team.

Echometer is one of the few online retrospective tools that can be used to collect feedback anonymously.

In Echometer, feedback can even be collected anonymously before the retrospective via asynchronous surveys, which is unique among online retrospective tools and distinguishes Echometer positively from tools such as the retrospective software Parabol.

Yes, Echometer offers a generous free version of the online retro tool that can be used permanently free of charge for one team. This includes all functions for team retrospectives.

You only have to switch to a paid version for additional functions such as SSO, multiple teams or an unlimited number of retrospectives.

Further information on the variants of Echometer's retro tool can be found on the pricing page here: Retro-Tool Price List

The greatest strengths of the Echometer retrospective tool are its impact on time savings, participant engagement and productivity.

  • With hundreds of ideas for retrospective templates in combination with the integrated surveys, Echometer makes it very easy to prepare great retrospectives in just a few minutes.
  • Thanks to the guided steps and the playful and interactive retrospective board, implementation is child's play, focused and results-oriented at the same time.
  • The integrated tracking of measures and team health makes it easier to recognize trends in the team at an early stage and ensure that measures from retrospectives are not forgotten

Combined with the unique features of the agile Health Checks and flexible whiteboards, Echometer is one of the best, if not the best, retrospective tool on the market, even better than the better-known Parabol retrospective tool.

Yes, Echometer's retro tool is technically secure and GDPR-compliant.

Several European financial institutions and insurance companies have chosen to purchase Echometer's retrospective tools over other alternatives due to strict regulatory requirements.

The data is stored and securely processed in Germany. The contract for commissioned data processing with details on the technical and organizational security measures of Echometer's processing can be viewed here: https://echometerapp.com/gdpr-and-security/

Echometer's tool for retrospectives offers the following integrations:

  • Jira (for easy tracking of measures from retrospectives in Jira boards)
  • Google login
  • SSO (only in paid version)

Echometer are particularly positive about the increase in the effectiveness of retrospectives and the improved measurability of team development through Echometer.

Here are some officially confirmed quotes from users and customers of the Echometer software tool, all of whom hold leadership positions in agile teams:

Duane Hill, Scrum Master Coach:

  • "Echometer is like a combination of Miro and a really smart retro board. It even provides metrics on the effectiveness of my coaching so I can easily spot trends in team development. I really love this tool – highly recommended for anyone who wants to make their retrospectives more effective!"

Lena Tölke, Agile Coach at Deutsche Bahn Sales:

  • "Thanks to the targeted questions in Echometer, we keep coming up with new insights for our further development in retrospectives and can make these transparent and measurable for all team members."

Clemens Schöne, Scrum Master at Communardo Products:

  • "Echometer is like the combination of Mural and EasyRetro – I am thrilled! With Echometer, remote retros can work much better and even be fun!"

Patrick Böttcher-Exner, management position at Relaxdays GmbH:

  • "One major advantage is that Echometer allows us to carry out and track both remote and on-site retrospectives in one tool."

Carina McLane, Senior Software Developer at Volvo:

  • "As a Scrum Master, it's not about the tools, but this one really makes the work a lot more enjoyable. After two years of experience with Echometer, I can recommend it to anyone who wants to enrich their retrospectives and understand their team better!"

Echometer is the perfect retrospective software tool for busy team managers, team leaders, engineering managers, but also scrum masters and Agile coaches in distributed or hybrid agile teams ("remote teams").

Users particularly appreciate how much time the tool saves for retrospective moderators and how it increases the engagement of participants in the retrospective. Therefore, people who value time savings, retrospective effectiveness and engagement benefit most from the functions of Echometer.

In addition, Echometer offers an easy, playful introduction to retrospectives and is therefore particularly suitable for teams that do not yet have much experience with retrospectives or are just starting out with agile working methods.

The Echometer retrospective software works as follows:

  • Simple preparation of retrospectives using templates for retro formats, surveys and whiteboards
  • Intuitive and step-by-step implementation of retrospectives. Possible both online and on-site. Simply use the QR code on site so that participants can take part via their smartphone with the Mobile Companion app.
  • Automatic follow-up through export functions and integrated tracking of developments and measures including retro archive.

The implementation of a retrospective in Echometer is as follows:

  • The retrospective board allows the agile team to start with a fun welcome screen where they can wait for the rest of the team while playing an interactive game.
  • Once all participants of the retrospective have arrived, continue with an icebreaker question. Echometer has several icebreaker question templates, including both open-ended questions and visual whiteboard templates with workshops and small games.
  • After the icebreaker, you reach the screen for tracking measures: Here, the team reviews the open actions from past retrospectives and decides whether to keep, close or discard the actions. This step is unique to Echometer and significantly improves the quality of the continuous improvement process of agile teams.
  • Then it's on to Team Health Check: all team members answer various questions, for example a question about satisfaction in the team or questions about psychological safety. This type of question increases engagement in the retrospective, even with introverted team members, as well as the creation of agile KPIs to track the mood in the team over time.
  • Then you continue with the retrospective board, where everyone can leave anonymous feedback on open questions – if this has not already been done in advance via a survey. There are hundreds of retrospective templates for different retrospectives on the Echometer retrospective board.
  • Feedback is first written face down on the retro board so that the participants do not influence each other. The moderator can then reveal the feedback column by column.
  • Once the feedback on the retro board has been uncovered, presented to the team and any queries about feedback have been clarified, the prioritization, i.e. the voting, can continue.
  • Voting in Echometer is anonymous. During the voting process, you can see how many votes have already been cast and how many are still open.
  • At on-site retrospectives, you can also vote using your smartphone.
  • As soon as the voting is complete, you can derive measures. To do this, you can either create a measure directly for the feedback or open the feedback on a new whiteboard to analyze the problem in more detail and brainstorm ideas for measures.
  • The brainstorming of measures on a separate whiteboard within the retro is a point of differentiation for Echometer compared to other tools for retrospectives such as Parabol. In Echometer, you can create a separate whiteboard for each topic within the retro and thus optimally control the focus of the discussion.
  • Finally, Echometer enables the retrospective to be concluded by anonymously asking the entire team about the ROTI score on a scale of 0 to 10 (i.e. the "Return on Time Invested"): This helps the team and in particular the retrospective moderator to continuously improve the quality of the retrospectives within the team itself.

Given this unique, structured and flexible retrospective process, combined with the range of functions, Echometer is often described as the best tool for agile retrospectives.

Further questions?

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