4 Interesting Agile Retrospective Meeting Templates
Are you using Google to search for “Agile Retrospective Meeting Templates”? Then look no further, you’ve come to the right place. Because in this article, I’ll introduce you to some templates for sprint retrospective meetings that you can use for your retrospectives:
Agile Retrospective Meeting Templates
1. Keep Stop Start Retrospective: 👍 👎
Let’s start with a classic. Namely, the Start-Stop-Keep retrospective. This asks three simple questions that relate to what should be started, stopped, and kept in the next sprint cycle. We usually make this the “Keep-Stop-Start” retrospective because we’ve found that the question “What should be kept?” is the easiest question to get the retrospective going:
Keep stop start retro: How the retro works
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Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
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Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
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Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
- Keep: What should we keep?
- Stop: What should we stop doing?
- Start: What should we start doing?
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Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
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Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
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Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
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Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
Keep stop start retro
Agile Retrospective Meeting Templates
2. DAKI (Drop Add Keep Improve) Retrospective:
As you can see, “DAKI” stands for the four English words “Drop, Add, Keep, Improve”, which are the four questions asked in this particular retrospective format. Retrospectives with more than 3 questions are usually a bit longer, but can provide interesting insights due to the additional perspectives on the last sprint ( I wrote a detailed article about the DAKI retrospective here ):
DAKI Retro: How the retro works
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Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
-
Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
-
Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
- Drop: What should we drop?
- Add: What should we add?
- Keep: What should we keep?
- Improve: What should we improve?
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Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
-
Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
-
Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
-
Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
DAKI Retro
Agile Retrospective Meeting Templates
3. The Retrospective Of The Three Little Pigs: 🐷
The fable of the same name served as inspiration for this retrospective, in which three little pigs in the fairy tale build three different shelters to protect themselves from the big wolf. Now the question is: What exactly does your team’s “shelter” consist of?
Three Little Pigs Retro 🐷: How the retro works
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Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
-
Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
-
Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
- House of straw: What do we do that is just holding together, but could topple over at any moment? 🌱
- House of sticks: What do we do that is relatively stable, but could be improved?\n 🪵
- House of bricks: What do we do that is rock solid? 🪨
-
Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
-
Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
-
Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
-
Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
Three Little Pigs Retro 🐷
4. The Campfire Retrospective:🔥
Who doesn’t like sitting by a cozy fire and thinking about the past and the future? - I wouldn’t recommend starting a fire in your office, but that’s exactly why we made a nice campfire retrospective:
Campfire Retrospective 🔥: How the retro works
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Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
-
Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
-
Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
- Warm fire: What made you feel good in the last sprint?
- Turned to ashes: What did not work as desired and crumbled to ashes?
- The shooting star: What do you wish for the future?
-
Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
-
Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
-
Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
-
Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
Campfire Retrospective 🔥
Conclusion - 4 Interesting Agile Retrospective Meeting Templates
I opted for 2 rather unusual retrospectives, in addition to the traditional “keep stop start” and DAKI retrospectives. I sincerely hope you enjoy them.
If you want to see 22 more Retrospective Templates, you can check out the following blog article: 22 Refreshing Agile Retrospective Templates in 2023
