Miro Retrospective Tool
Miro vs. Metro Retro? Go with Echometer!
Which is better for agile teams? Metro Retro and Miro are good tools for retrospectives. Nevertheless, it is worth asking whether there are even better alternatives - for example, like Echometer.
Metro Retro vs. Miro vs. Echometer
Quick Overview & Reviews: Metro Retro vs. Miro
All three retro tools have received very good ratings from users. But the following brief description reveals different objectives: Developing the team sustainably (Echometer) vs. a digital whiteboard for product teams (Metro Retro) vs. digital collaboration in general (Miro).
Metro Retro vs. Miro
Quick Intro Echometer
“Most Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters run in circles fixing superficial symptoms. Time to use psychology to sustainably foster mindset change - through the Echometer retro tool."
Metro Retro vs. Miro
Quick Intro Metro Retro
"Metro Retro is a digital whiteboard optimized for software and product teams."
Metro Retro vs. Miro
Miro short introduction
“Miro is your team's visual platform to connect, collaborate, and create — together."
Miro Retrospective Tool
Why is Echometer better than Metro Retro & Miro?
 Echometer Review | 🆚 Metro Retro Review | 🆚 Miro | |
|---|---|---|---|
Integrated online whiteboards | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Interactive Online Retros | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Facilitation support (Check-In or Icebreaker Generator etc.) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Partially | ❌ No |
Organizing Action Items | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Echometer Retro Board | 🆚 Metro Retro Board | 🆚 Miro Board for retrospective | |
Effective Timer | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Optional anonymity | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Partially |
Mobile device support for on-site retros | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Retro voting for prioritization | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Partially |
No login required for external guests | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (depending on pricing model) | ✅ Yes |
Optionally collect anonymous feedback in advance of the retro | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Echometer Team Development | 🆚 Metro Retro Team Development | 🆚 Miro team development | |
Agile Health Check surveys | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Team development measured over time | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Health Check item pool with nudges (food for thought) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Organizational Health Checks | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Retro templates for every level of maturity | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ⚠️ Partially |
ROTI (Return on Time Invest) KPI | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Echometer Pricing | 🆚 Metro Retro Pricing Model & Subscription | 🆚 Miro pricing model | |
Data protection (developed and hosted in Europe) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
No login required to test tool | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
Free version after test | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (max. 3000 board items) | ✅ Yes (Max. 3 boards) |
Pricing | From 5.5$/team member/month | From 6$/team member/month | From 8$/team member/month |
You would like to include other retro tools in your comparison?
Incl. Screenshots and a list of Pros and Cons
Echometer vs Miro Case Study
For a period of 3 months, 2 teams at Relaxdays did their retrospectives with Miro and two others with Echometer.
Some of the retrospectives have taken place remotely, hybrid, and completely on-site.
The goal here was to compare Echometer and Miro as retro tools in terms of quality of retrospective and effectiveness.
See Echometer in action?
Looking for a Metro Retro or Miro alternative? Simply start an agile retrospective in Echometer and try it out:
Users about the best Metro Retro & Miro Retro alternative: Echometer
Try a Practice Round of Echometer
Join thousands of Agile Coaches in making team development more engaging - and measurable!
Fun Retro Miro
Miro Retro Tool FAQ: General
Miro is not actually a retrospective tool, but a whiteboard tool for digital collaboration. Nevertheless, many agile teams use it to conduct interactive retrospectives in remote teams.
Using Miro for retrospectives is popular because the Miro Sprint Retrospective Tool allows for fun, colourful and flexible retrospective workshops. You can easily start retrospectives on Miro on their website by using the appropriate template.
The best alternative for a Retrospective Miro Tool to do a whiteboard retrospective is Echometer, which combines online whiteboards, retrospectives and agile health checks in an easy-to-implement way. Another alternative to the Miro Retro Tool is the Metro Retro Tool.
The best alternative for the Miro Retrospective Board is Echometer. Echometer combines the features of an online whiteboard, retrospective and team development tool (agile health checks) in an easy-to-implement way. Another alternative to the Miro Retro Tool is the Metro Retro Tool.
Overall, the Miro Board for Retrospectives focuses on fun and flexibility of retrospectives, but it is not a "pure" Miro Retro Board, the whiteboard can also be used for other use cases. In this respect, Miro cannot offer some highly useful features of "pure" retro tools (e.g. anonymity, ROTI, Agile Health Checks).
On the Miro retrospective board (a whiteboard), stickers can only be prioritised using voting in one of the paid versions of the tool. For this purpose, the tool offers a voting panel in the top right corner, to the left of the "Timer" (only way possible for a Miro Retrospective vote). However, compared to the free voting of Echometer, the voting in Miro is not optimally designed for agile retrospectives (for example, action items cannot be saved & monitored in the tool). You can find more information on how to conduct a retro in a Miro retrospective tutorial on their page: https://miro.com/guides/retrospectives/.
The Miro board Retrospective can theoretically be carried out anonymously, but for doing that you have to join a retro as "guest" (which is a suboptimal workaround, of course). The Miro Retro Tool alternative Echometer, on the other hand, offers anonymous feedbacks in retrospectives - including many other useful features (e.g. action item administration, Agile Health Checks etc.).
Miro Retrospective Templates
There are various Miro Retro themes, Miro Retro Formats, Miro Retrospective boards and Miro Retro games & formats on the Retro Board of Miro (a whiteboard): For example, the Start Stop Continue Retrospective, Mad Sad Glad Retrospective, 4Ls Retrospective or Sailboat Retro can be conducted in the Miro Retro Board. If you're interested in more fun Miro Retrospective games, just google "Miro Sprint Retro Templates" or log in to Miro to search within the available templates. By the way, the Miro Retro Tool alternative Echometer offers over 200 freely combinable retrospective formats, including retro games and agile health checks.
Which is the best Miro Retrospective template depends on the context of the team, its mood and maturity level. Basically, one of the most popular Miro Project Retrospective formats is the Start Stop Continue Retro. There are more than 200 different retrospective methods and games available in the Miro Retro Tool Alternative Echometer. More info on the best retrospective questions are in the linked post.
Basically, Lean Coffee, for example, is suitable for a short Miro Quick Retro: The question is simply asked, "What would you like to talk about in this retro?" Alternatively, the core question of every retro is usually: "Why didn't we manage to complete all the user stories (planned for the last iteration)?" Both questions or retro templates can also be carried out very efficiently in the Echometer Retro Tool.
The Miro Sailboat Retro Template or the Miro Boat Retro asks the typical retro questions. You can do this retro using Miro for the retrospective, Metro Retro or the Echometer Retro Tool:
- ⚓️ Your anchor: What holds us back?
- 🦈🧊 Your shark/iceberg: Which dangers or obstacles approach us?
- 💨 Your tailwind: What drives us forward?
- 🏝💰 Your paradise: What achievement or milestones are we working towards?
The Sailboat retrospective Miro template is one of the most popular ones.
The Miro Starfish Retrospective Template asks the classic questions (divided by a starfish). You can do this retro using Miro, Metro Retro or the Echometer Retro Tool:
- Keep: [Optional: Looking at the last sprint / weeks] What should we keep doing, keep as it is?
- Stop: What should we stop doing?
- Start: What should we start doing?
- More: What should we do more of?
- Less: What should we do less of?
The Starfish Retrospective Miro template is one of the most popular ones.
The Miro Festival Retrospective Template asks the classic questions (in a festival metaphor) and can be conducted not only in Miro, but also in Metro Retro and the Echometer Retro Tool:
- Grandstand: What are highlights of the sprint, what went very well, what did we particularly enjoy?
- Fortune teller: What do you wish you had known at the beginning of the sprint?
- Attractions: How can we make the next sprint better? What consequences do we draw from what we have learned?
- First aid tent: What things didn't work so well and caused us pain?
The Festival Retrospective is one of the most popular Miro Retro Templates.
The Miro Christmas Retrospective Template asks the retro questions via a Christmas metaphor. You can do this retro using Miro for the retrospective, Metro Retro or the Echometer Retro Tool:
- Wish list: Which wishes have unfortunately not been taken into account this year (or in the last sprint)?
- Candles on the Christmas tree: What enlightenments did we have this year (or in the last sprint)?
- Gifts under the Christmas tree: Which of your wishes were fulfilled this year (or in the last sprint)?
- What gifts do you want for next year (or for the next sprint)?
By the way, the Christmas or XMAS retrospective is a popular Miro Retro template
The Miro hot air balloon retrospective template asks the classic questions (via a balloon metaphor) and can be conducted in Miro, Metro Retro and in the Echometer Retro tool:
- What makes us rise, what drives us?
- What takes us off course?
- What keeps us grounded or pulls us down?
- More: What should we do more of?
- Where do we need to heat up more?
The hot air balloon or balloon retrospective is one of the most popular Miro Retro Templates.