Many Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches and other retrospective facilitators search for the “I like I wish I wonder” retrospective. Well, let’s give you what you need!
The I like I wish I wonder Retrospective
The “I like I wish I wonder retrospective” is fairly simple. You are giving the team three area's, three beginnings of a sentence, and let them do the rest. Essentially, this way you are asking the team three questions.
Looking at the last weeks, the last Sprint, or just in general:
- I like - what do or did you like?
- I wish - what do you or did you wish for?
- I wonder - where are you confused, what are you wondering?
So it's up to you whether you prefer to ask them as questions or just give the beginning of the sentences as a starting point.
If you want, you can do this retrospective with our retrospective tool Echometer:
A few tips: Wondering what you wish for?
Okay, ignore the headline, it does not really have to do with the retrospective idea 😄 
But before you actually do this retrospective, I would like to give you a few hints.
Firstly, feel free to search for a check-in that fits this retrospective idea. Check ins can have a very positive effect on the overall retro, as some evaluations show. We have a list of 21 clever retrospective check-ins in case you need inspiration.
Secondly, you should make sure that (when asking the questions of the I like I wish I wonder retrospective) you keep the brainstorming of feedback hidden, so that team members do not influence each other with their feedback.
Thirdly, As a Scrum Master and Psychologist I see this common mistake to focus too much time on the data gathering phase (answering and discussing the questions) - and too little time on developing really good action items (find 7 tips here).
The better the action items, the higher the chances that they are implemented, the higher the chances that you improve the maturity level of your team - so feel free to have a look at the linked blog post to make sure you take into account the the 6th phase of a retrospective.
What you don’t want is this phenomenon called “retrospective fatigue”: the development team considering that the sprint retrospective is not necessary. In case you have that problem, you might check out my post on “7 tips to fight retrospective fatigue".
I like, I wish, I wonder Retrospective
Conclusion – "I like, I wish, I wonder" retrospective
As I mentioned, the “I like I wish I wonder” retrospective format is pretty simple. In case you want some more inspiration, feel free to have a look at either 3 great retrospective check-ins for whiteboards or 32 kickass retrospective ideas for beginners and professionals. for beginners and pros.
The latter includes the Mario Kart retrospective and the Summer retro - you will like' it, wish' you would have found it before and wonder' why you have never visited the Echometer blog before 
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