1 – Winter Retrospective ❄️ | 2 – Spring Retrospective 🌼 | 3 – Summer Retrospective 🌞 | 4 – Fall Retrospective 🍂 | 5 – DAKI Retrospective 🌍
In this article, I have brought you the five best retrospectives that you can ask your team every quarter.
These are, the DAKI retrospective, the best retro for this purpose in my opinion and 4 seasonal retrospectives that fit the 4 quarters of the year exactly.
Why quarterly retrospectives are so important 👍:
It is not uncommon for activities to be planned in intervals.
Teams often plan on a weekly to bi-weekly basis.
In contrast, planning at company level often takes place on an annual and quarterly basis. This is a time window that is still short enough to make adjustments, but long enough for strategic changes to be identified in the figures.
This is precisely why it makes sense to not only check how the last sprint cycle went on a quarterly basis with a retrospective, but also to take a macro perspective here.
Quarterly retrospectives allow you to build a bridge between the short-term agility of your team and the long-term strategic direction of the company.
Template for quarterly retrospectives
#1 – The Winter Retrospective ❄️
Whether you like it or not, the year begins with winter in the northern hemisphere. It's cold and wet and sometimes there's even snow. But winter also has its good sides, or can you imagine anything more cozy than sitting on the sofa with a warm cup of hot chocolate wrapped in a blanket?
It's exactly the same in the corporate world. There are the cozy and uncomfortable sides of everyday life. But how did your first quarter go and what are you looking forward to in the next one?
Open questions
Snow: What have we almost forgotten under the snow blanket?
Ice: Where do we have to be careful not to slip?
Stove: What warms us up?
Anticipation: What can we hardly wait for in spring?
Template for quarterly retrospectives
#2 – The spring retrospective 🌼 (spring cleaning retro)
After winter comes spring and this stands for renewal. Nature blossoms again and it's time to look at yourself and see what you want to renew. A spring clean is ideal for this:
Open questions
What sparkles joy, which item should we keep?
What can we throw in the bin?
What can we recycle and reuse - maybe this time for a different challenge?
Template for quarterly retrospectives
#3 – The summer retrospective 🌞
Wasn't your summer wonderful? And this is exactly where the right retro should not be missing. Let those summer feelings blossom again, but also see when the warm weather made you sweat. – The perfect retrospective to round off the third quarter:
Open questions
What was the ice cream, your favorite moment?
What made you sweat?
What could be a treat to cope with the summer heat in the future?
Template for quarterly retrospectives
#4 – The fall retrospective 🍂
And then, last but not least, autumn arrives. The leaves fall from the trees and both beautiful rainbows and slippery roads are part of everyday life. How did you get through the fall and how do you prepare for winter?
Open questions
🌧🍂 On which slippery wet paths did we (almost) slip?
🌧🌈 What has been your rainbow moment (favorite moment of the sprint)?
🥜🐿 What do we need to prepare to get well through the winter? (Like squirrels prepare nuts for winter)
Template for quarterly retrospectives
#5 – The DAKI Retrospective 🌎:
Whether spring, summer, fall or winter. The DAKI Retrospective is a great all-rounder and is suitable for every season. It allows you to reflect on each quarter from the most important perspectives (Drop, Add, Keep, Improve):
Open Feedback Questions
Drop: What should we drop?
Add: What should we add?
Keep: What should we keep?
Improve: What should we improve?
Conclusion – Quarterly Retrospective Template⚡
It is important to hold regular retrospectives. Our recommendation is to do this every 2-4 weeks. However, quarterly retrospectives are something very special, as many companies plan on a quarterly basis. This makes it all the more important to harmonize the Agile way of working with this quarterly planning. The retrospectives presented here are ideal for this.
If you like these retrospectives, you'll probably like this too: 54 retrospectives for beginners and professionals.
Would you like to start one of these retrospectives right away? Then try out our Echometer tool for the continuous improvement of agile teams:
