Have you just searched for "WRAP Retrospective" on Google or would you like to see examples and alternatives? Great, then you landed here at the right place🎉
The WRAP retrospective stands for "Wishes, Risks, Appreciation, Puzzles" and is a very popular retrospective when it comes to agile retros. So it's no surprise that one or two teams have already held them many times and are looking for a change (alternatives will come later)👀
However, it is just as common for examples of WRAP Retro to be sought in order to make it even better in the future🔍
WRAP Retro examples
The 4 questions asked at the WRAP Retrospective🤔
First things first: In my opinion, the "WRAP Retro" is a versatile retro. It not only deals with the classic questions of a retro in a creatively modified form (good, bad, change), but also strengthens team cohesion through "appreciation". This has an immediate positive effect on the mood.
The WRAP Retro questions are:
🌞What do you wish for? (Wishes)
☔What risks do you see? (Risks)
⚡Who or what deserves appreciation? (Appreciation)
🧐 What is currently a puzzle for you? (Puzzle)
If you want to try this retrospective or any of 50+ other templates for free, you can do so in our agile team continuous improvement tool:
WRAP questions + template + examples
Open Feedback Questions
Wishes: What do you wish for?
Risks: What risks do you see?
Appreciation: Who or what deserves appreciation?
Puzzles: What is currently a puzzle for you?
As can be seen in the diagram, there are the following four "WRAP Retro" questions 👀
What do you wish for? (Wishes)⚗️
💡Example: You want more participation from other team members in discussions. The so-called "psychological safety" should therefore be improved. You could start to carry out an agile team Health Check in 3 steps in the team.
👉🏽More information about: "psychological safety" or " Team Health Checks in 3 steps".
What risks do you see? (Risks)⛔️
💡Example: The product backlog is getting longer instead of shorter. A lot of chaos can arise here in the future. – You can plan fewer new things for the coming weeks and work more on the backlog.
Who or what deserves appreciation? (Appreciation)✅
💡Example: The design of the product was significantly improved in a very short time! – The front-end developer deserves a round of applause for this
What is currently a puzzle for you? (Puzzle)🧩
💡Example: We now use a new method to prioritize tasks within the week. Although this is supposed to help, it feels much more stressful since the introduction of this method. – How can this be related?
Most Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters run in circles...
...fixing superficial symptoms. Time to use psychology to foster sustainable mindset change.
WRAP alternatives
Please not too much of a good thing!🙅🏽♀️
As nice as the WRAP retrospective may be, the same applies here: If you use a retrospective too often in too short a time, retro exhaustion sets in. This means that the participants get the feeling that the same thing is always being said and the retro loses its usefulness. That's why we'll give you a few suitable alternatives below to prevent this monotony from occurring in the first place💤
Important: It's not just a matter of reframing the same questions (What worked well? -> What made us happy?), but to really encourage new perspectives on what is happening in the team.
For example, if the team seems less motivated at the moment, you can take a closer look at this with the "battery retrospective"🔍
A retro, such as the "Psychological Safety Retro", can also help to increase team commitment in the future.🔝
Or you simply want to see how you view the future instead of always reflecting on what has already happened. The "Future Retrospective" is ideal for this. 🫡
👉🏽More information and the templates for these retrospectives: Well thought-out questions for effective retrospectives
I could go on with this list forever. If you are interested in seeing not just these three, but 26 alternatives to the WRAP retrospective, please read our blog article on the subject: 26 Refreshing Agile Retrospective Templates
Conclusion – WRAP retrospective and alternatives
I could write for hours about the WRAP retrospective, but I don't want to make it any more complicated than it is.
So if you're looking for a crisp retro, the WRAP Retrospective is the perfect choice🎉
Would you like to start your first WRAP retrospective right away? Then try out our Echometer tool for the continuous improvement of agile teams💥
