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Psychological Safety in Agile Teams

Psychological Safety - Just Another Trend Around a Buzzword?

A look into Google Trends reveals that psychological safety is currently experiencing a historic high search demand. This is not least due to the fact that the workplace is changing and psychological safety is increasingly determining which organizations will be successful and which less so. Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters are therefore concerned about the psychological safety of their teams.

Let's see if the hype about psychological safety in agile teams is justified and what can be done specifically!

Psychological Safety: Definition & The Research Behind It

Before we talk about why psychological safety is so much of a focus right now, let's establish a basis and answer: what is psychological safety?

The psychologist dr Amy Edmondson has initially in 1999 created the construct “Team Psychological Safety” when they were in a hospital in a study Relationship between high-performing teams and error rates examined. She expected the best teams to make fewer mistakes. She was surprised: the best teams reported more errors. That's when she realized that high-performing teams are more willing and able to talk about mistakes. Average teams, on the other hand, hide their mistakes (they made more mistakes in the study, but it didn't show because they didn't report the mistakes in the first place).

The pattern was also confirmed several times in other studies. And with this realization, psychological safety was established as a psychological construct. Psychological safety is defined as a belief shared by the members of a team that it is safe to take interpersonal risks as a team.

Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.

Definition of psychological safety according to Dr. Amy Edmondson

In psychology, these still relatively abstract constructs can be broken down into specific items, just as they are used in surveys. These items provide a practical perspective on psychological safety. The items were for example:

  • All members of this team feel able to address problems and difficult questions.
  • We value results more than output or input, and no one needs to "look busy".

Even then, Amy Edmondson's conclusion was that psychological safety is a foundation for high-performing teams and a fundamental requirement for organizational learning and innovation.

In our retrospective tool Echometer. Feel free to try it out and maybe do it with your team's:

Team retrospective on Psychological safety

Team Radar Tool Health Check Retrospective

In this format, agreement with the Health Check items is asked on a scale.

  • Appreciation: My colleagues appreciate my contribution to the team.
  • Team Spirit: There is a trusting working atmosphere in our team.
  • Transparency: Everyone in my team knows who is currently working on what.
  • Recovery & Breaks: I have enough room for breaks in which I can draw new energy.
  • Meeting culture: Our meetings are well structured, yet leave room for creativity and new ideas.
  • Support: In my team, each team member passes on their individual knowledge and experience.

The Facts: Benefits of Psychological Safety

The consulting firm Accenture has summarized the benefits of high psychological safety in numbers:

  • 27% less fluctuation
  • 76% more commitment
  • 50% more productivity
  • 74% less stress
  • 29% more life satisfaction
  • 57% more collaboration
  • 26% better skill development/learning rate
  • 67% higher probability that new knowledge is applied

Since the beginning of research on psychological safety studies have confirmed similar effects.

While many concrete modes of action remain to be explored, one thing we can say with a high degree of certainty is that psychological safety is a fundamental enabler.

Why psychological safety is a prerequisite for agile teams & scrum

Like all agile working methods, the Scrum framework aims to create an environment in which teams can excel. But what if the teams don't use this freedom at all? This phenomenon is so common that it has been given its own name: Zombie Scrum. Among other things, Zombie Scrum primarily lacks commitment, ideas and discussions in the team. A core cause of these dysfunctions in agile teams is a lack of psychological safety.

In agile teams, psychological security remains an ingredient that must not be missing, alongside agile routines, meeting formats and the like. And the Harvard Business Review comes to the same conclusion:  Agility does not work without psychological safety.

Most Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters run in circles...

...fixing superficial symptoms. Time to use psychology to foster sustainable mindset change.

"Many team members are afraid to speak up!"

"We discover too many unexpected issues & bugs at a late stage!"

"Why does it sometimes take me hours to prepare a simple retrospective?"

High Performance and Psychological Safety: Project Aristotle

Google is known for conducting extensive internal investigations and, fortunately, regularly shares results via Re:Work with the world.

So did Google with Project Aristotle which examined what makes effective teams at Google.

The effectiveness of the teams was measured comprehensively via the evaluation by the management, the executives, the team itself, as well as the achievement of quarterly goals. 

In this study, Google looked at over 250 variables and found that who is on the team is less important than how the team works together.

And which factor came first as a predictor of peak performance? Of course: Psychological safety.

Still, we don't want to hide the fact that other factors also turned out to be essential in the study:

  1. Psychological Safety – Team members feel safe taking risks and being vulnerable in front of others. Example: "If I make a mistake on our team, it will not be used against me."
  2. Reliability – team members complete their tasks on time and meet Google's high standards of excellence. Example: "If my teammates say they're going to do something, they follow through with it."
  3. Structure and Clarity – Team members have clear roles, plans and goals. Example: "Our team has an effective decision-making process."
  4. Meaning – The work is personally important to team members personally important. Example: "The work I do for our team is meaningful to me."
  5. Impact – Team members believe their work matters and drives change. Example: “I understand how our team’s work contributes to the organization's goals.”

So one must not think that psychological safety is the only central factor for successful teams. You can also find detailed background information and exercises on the psychological success factors for teams in Christian’s eBook: 12 workshops on team flow & mindset change

Measure Psychological Safety

Is it even possible to measure psychological safety? Yes, even creator Amy Edmondson has measured psychological safety. There are several ways to measure psychological safety.

Amy Edmondson uses for the measurement in her study Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams for example the following items:

  • If you make a mistake in this team, you are often accused of it. (inverted)
  • The members of this team are able to address problems and difficult issues.
  • People on this team sometimes reject others because they are different. (inverted)
  • It's safe to take a risk on this team.
  • It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help. (inverted)
  • No one on this team would intentionally act in a way that would undermine my efforts.
  • Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized.

Of course, the question remains: Should psychological safety be measured? The answer is probably yes, but cautiously. Dealing with the results of the measurement in a bad way can quickly lead to damaging the psychological safety. 

Especially in top-down cultures, results can quickly be used as a means of pressure by management and thus damage psychological security. The next survey may then turn out to be more positive, the only reason being that the framework conditions for a neutral survey were negatively influenced if the data was handled in a harmful way.

In the next section we look at how to prevent deterioration by measuring psychological safety.

Create and Improve Psychological Safety in Agile Teams

In her well-known TEDx Talk Amy Edmondson gives three simple tips on how each individual can contribute to greater psychological safety:

  • Think of work as a learning problem, not an execution problem.
  • Acknowledge your own fallibility.
  • Be curious and ask lots of questions.

There are a few more basic requirements and routines especially at team level which you should take care of:

  1. Creating clarity about values
    Values serve as a compass for decisions. When the compass works well, team members feel confident making decisions independently. This leads to less coordination effort and more personal responsibility. If, on the other hand, the compass is broken, uncertainty arises, more discussions and potentially conflicting decisions. So it makes sense, for example, to explicitly write down values in your own "culture book" and to enrich them with concrete behavioral anchors or examples from your own company.
  2. Use retrospectives for feedback and reflection
    Even once the values are clear, it remains a constant challenge to reflect on them and establish them in everyday life. If you don't do this, the perceptions of the team members will quickly diverge again and the compass will become unusable. Retrospectives are the optimal framework for calibrating the value compass and at the same time create a framework for open feedback, which further strengthens psychological security.

To make it easy to get started here, we developed a retrospective on Psychological Safety . Doing this retrospective you can both measure and improve on psychological safety. In case you do not have a lot of experiences with retrospective workshops, that is no problem - our tool is even for beginners. You can find the direct link to the retrospective at the top of this post (you've probably already seen it).

Here are a few more exercises on how you can increase psychological safety:

Conclusion: Psychological Safety Plays a Central Role in Agile Teams

Yes, psychological safety may currently be a buzzword in agile teams. But this hype is mostly justified, because the influence of psychological safety is fundamental. Of course, in addition to psychological safety, there are also other psychological factors for cooperation that you should keep in mind as a Scrum Master and Agile Coach.

The psychological aspects of cooperation and the organizational culture are definitely topics that also every manager should deal with. Even if it doesn't seem so at first glance, there are probably few topics on the management agenda that have a greater impact on the long-term success of the company.

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FAQ about the online retrospective tool

No, you do not need to log in to Echometer or register to test the Retro Board and Retro Tool in Echometer.

You can try out Echometer's Retro Board via the following link without logging in: Try a Practice Round

First, simply register for free in Echometer. Then navigate to the workspace for which you would like to purchase the retro tool. If you haven't already done so, you can do so here: Create account in Echometer 1:1 tool

You can then manage your subscription (for both the retro tool and the 1:1 software) within the workspace settings.

You can choose from various payment methods when upgrading.

If you do not have access to your company's credit card yourself, you can simply add a buyer as a workspace admin in your Echometer workspace so that this admin can carry out the upgrade for you.

In Echometer there are two separate software solutions that are available within each workspace in Echometer:

  • 1:1 tool: Software for planning and conducting 1:1 meetings and tracking employee development
  • Retrospective tool: Software for planning and moderating retrospectives and tracking team development through team health checks

Both are independent software solutions, so they can be used separately from each other.

However, they work according to the same principles and aim to achieve the same added value: The continuous improvement of agile teams. In this respect, the simultaneous use of both software solutions is recommended.

Yes, you can assign administration rights to any number of users at both team level and workspace level. Please note the following:

  • Only workspace admins can take out and manage a Echometer subscription for a Echometer workspace.
  • Only workspace admins can create additional teams and name or remove additional workspace admins.
  • Team admins can appoint and remove additional team admins and team members for their team

If an agile team does not yet have much experience with retrospectives, a tool that effectively guides you through the retrospective and offers many templates is recommended:

  • Echometer is known not only for being an intuitive online retro board, but also for offering a very effective guided flow through the retrospective. At the same time, Echometer offers whiteboards that can be flexibly integrated into the retrospective. This makes Echometer very beginner-friendly.
  • Echometer also has extremely versatile and creative templates for retrospectives and team Health Checks that stimulate team reflection. Inexperienced teams in particular are very grateful for the food for thought in Echometer.

This makes Echometer the best software recommendation for beginners with agile retrospectives or Scrum beginners. By the way, you can try out Echometer for free without logging in: Echometer Try out the retro tool

Yes, you can collect and measure the eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) in Echometer's Health Checks and surveys for retrospectives.

The eNPS can be evaluated in Echometer both at team level and across teams. For example, you can use the heat map in the Workspace Health Dashboard for cross-team evaluation.

The Echometer Retrospective software is designed to guide teams through the retrospective process with maximum ease and effectiveness, following best practices.

The steps and their sequence can be customized using the navigation within the retro. By default, a retrospective in Echometer is structured in this way:

  • Icebreaker
  • Review of open measures from past retros
  • Collect feedback (first Health Checks, then open questions)
  • Prioritization of feedback
  • Deriving action items
  • Conclusion of the retrospective with the "ROTI score" (Return on Time Invested)

Additional whiteboards (e.g. for workshops, for analyzing problems or for brainstorming measures) can also be added spontaneously at any point using the Retrospective navigation.

Yes, the Echometer Retrospective Tool offers various export options for retrospectives.

The most popular method is to generate a PDF that contains the feedback, the votes from the prioritization and the measures of the retrospective. It is also possible to share the retrospective via a sharing link.

A summary of the retrospective is also automatically sent to other participants by email after the retrospective, provided they are registered as team members in the team.

Yes, the online retrospective tool Echometer is one of the few retrospective software tools that also optimally supports the recording and tracking of measures:

  • Integration: You can also record measures directly in Jira via an integration.
  • Automatic follow-up: All open measures from past retros appear automatically in the measure review of the next retrospective for tracking purposes. This gives the team an overview of which measures are currently still open and creates a commitment to implementing the agreed measures.
  • Reminders: Measures are assigned to a person responsible, who automatically receives a reminder email when the measure is created so that the measure is not forgotten. In addition, each participant can flexibly receive action reminders via email and manage the action status at any time in the Echometer Retro Tool.

This means that Echometer's tool for team retrospectives has extensive and well thought-out functions for action tracking.

Yes, Echometer allows grouping and prioritizing (voting on points) of feedback on the Retrospective Board.

All participants can simply drag and drop cards onto each other and group them together.

There are 2 modes for prioritizing:

  • In "Live Voting" (the recommended mode), the moderator selects how many votes each participant should have and then starts the hidden voting. As soon as all votes have been cast, the moderator can close the live voting. During the voting, you can see how many votes are still to be awarded. After the voting is closed, the cards in the columns are automatically sorted in descending order so that the cards with the most votes are at the top.
  • In "Facilitated Voting" mode, the moderator simply selects how many votes are allocated to each topic. This mode is only necessary in exceptional cases.

Feedback can be optimally processed in the team using Echometer and the measures derived from it can also be easily recorded in Echometer in direct connection with the feedback.

Yes, with the online retrospective software Echometer you can collect asynchronous feedback on the retrospective in advance via a survey.

This means that obtaining feedback is asynchronous and you can make the most of the time spent together in retrospect.

Yes, absolutely: The online retrospective software Echometer is optimized for distributed teams working remotely and includes various options for interacting with each other in real time.

Both the retrospectives and the whiteboards are synchronized in real time for all participants and you can also optionally display your colleagues' cursors.

Yes, the online retrospective tool Echometer is a free tool that you can try out without logging in.

You can get started right away using this link: Echometer Retro Tool without login.

To invite other participants to your online retrospective in Echometer, you will need to register. Participants only need to enter their email address to join the retrospective, but do not need to log in.

After the retrospective, participants can optionally log in to access the summary even after the retrospective has ended.

Yes, Echometer offers many high-quality templates for retrospectives and the respective steps of a retrospective.

Echometer is the retrospective software tool with probably the most integrated retrospective template ideas and patterns:

  • The retro templates in Echometer contain sample questions for the retro board. These are often creatively based on specific topics in –, such as the "Kart racing retrospective" or the "Time travel retrospective".
  • Some retro templates also contain templates for Health Checks. For example, to measure the Spotify Health Check or psychological safety in the team.
  • When creating a team, you can choose from various team templates for management teams or scrum teams, for example. The team templates then put together a suitable team Health Check for the team.
  • For icebreakers in the retrospective, Echometer has over 50 ideas for sample questions that can be used spontaneously and randomly in a retrospective via a random generator.
  • And then there are whiteboard templates in Echometer, which contain ideas for check-ins, team building and the development of measures.

One of the greatest strengths of the Echometer Retro Tool are the various templates for retrospectives, which can be used as patterns for the creative design of your own retrospectives.

Here is a short list of the samples as an insight into the retrospective templates:

  • Happy, Wondering, Sad
  • Three Little Pigs
  • Team Morale Health Check
  • Easter and Christmas retrospective templates
  • DORA Retrospective
  • 5 agile values Health Check
  • Spotify Squad Health Check Radar
  • Psychological safety Health Check
  • DORA Retrospective
  • Unique retrospective templates such as the "7 Dwarfs Retrospective" or the "Football Retrospective"

If you are interested in the Retrospective Tools templates, take a quick look at the tool: Echometer Retro Templates & Templates

Yes, Echometer is an online tool for retrospectives that offers Jira integration.

With the Jira integration in Echometer, measures from Echometer can be created in Jira boards with a single click.

This makes Echometer a good retrospective software tool if your team is already using Jira.

Echometer is not available in the Atlassian Marketplace, but as separate software via my.echometerapp.com callable.

Yes, Echometer can be called a starfish retrospective tool, because with Echometer you can easily perform the starfish retrospective on an interactive online retrospective board.

Hot tip: If you are interested in the Starfish Retrospective, take a quick look at Echometer. Because the special thing about Echometer is that you can try out the starfish retrospective immediately (time-saving, without logging in) at this link: Echometer Starfish Retrospective Access without login

The Echometer Sprint Retrospective software has very extensive features, both for beginners and experts. The following features form the core of the tool:

  • Structured retrospective flow with integrated whiteboards for flexible brainstorming on individual focus topics
  • Retrospective board for brainstorming, presenting, grouping and voting with live collaboration
  • Moderator tools such as a timer, anonymity settings and control over the agenda step (focused for all participants)
  • Integrated tracking of measures from past retrospectives with automatic resubmission and incl. Jira integration
  • Unbiased brainstorming: Concealed cards on the retro board as well as on the integrated whiteboards prevent participants from influencing each other during the brainstorming session.
  • Simple, quick setup of the tool: Many users report that they were able to start their first retrospective in less than 10 minutes.

The following features are Echometer's unique selling points that are relevant for experienced Scrum Masters and team leaders:

  • Dashboard with retrospective history, including duration of the retrospective, number of participants and ROTI score
  • PDF and Markdown export of the retrospective after completion
  • The retrospective can take place asynchronously (e.g. also via a survey that is sent out before the retro) or in real time
  • Anonymous feedback via survey or on the Retrospective Board
  • Anonymous voting and prioritization of feedback on the retrospective board by awarding points
  • Query or measurement of the "ROTI score" (i.e. Return on Time Invested) after the retrospective for continuous evaluation and improvement of the retrospective by team members
  • Creation of Health Check surveys or pulse surveys as a happiness check and mood barometer in order to recognize trends (e.g. increasing dissatisfaction) in the team at an early stage
  • Health Check KPIs and agile metrics in the analysis dashboard including history
  • Health Check Surveys or pulse surveys also possible across teams

The Echometer Retrospective Tool offers the following features for retrospective template ideas, questions and samples:

  • 50+ Retrospective Template Ideas including Keep Stop Start, Happy Wondering Sad and the Starfish Retrospective
  • 200+ Retrospective Health Check questions and templates
  • Retrospective Icebreaker Library with 50+ fun retrospective check-ins to promote psychological safety and team spirit etc.
  • Whiteboard templates for visual, interactive retrospective icebreakers (including seasonal highlights for e.g. Easter and Christmas)
  • Whiteboard templates to structure and facilitate the creation of measures

Yes, the retrospective software tool Echometer is easy to use even for beginners who are not yet familiar with retrospectives.

Many users report that they were able to conduct their first retrospective in Echometer in less than 10 minutes of preparation - – in no time at all! Even users who are less tech-savvy can join the retrospectives in just a few simple steps.

Thanks to the structured process in Echometer, conducting the retrospective is also very easy. Setting up the Health Check is also not complex and does not require a large learning curve – you can get started very quickly.

On the testimonial page of Echometer you will find numerous confirmed user reviews: Echometer Testimonials

Echometer is the best software tool for retrospectives compared to alternative retrospective software tools such as Retrium, EasyRetro, Reetro, Neetro and TeamRetro for three reasons:

  1. Large selection of creative templates for retrospectives: Users of Echometer confirm that Echometer has a uniquely wide range of retro board ideas.
  2. Echometer has a simple and intuitive structure for retrospectives that guides teams through retrospectives using best practices. This also makes Echometer very beginner-friendly.
  3. Echometer offers a generous free version.

Users of Echometer particularly appreciate the unique function of Echometer to insert Health Checks into their agile retrospectives: These agile Health Checks make a massive contribution to stimulating team reflection and actively involving every team member in the retrospective.

To summarize, even alternative retrospective software tools such as Parabol do not have the unique features of the Echometer retrospective tool, which are both simple and effective. Therefore, it can be said that Echometer is the best software app for conducting agile sprint retrospective meetings.

Yes, in Echometer you can get anonymous feedback from the team.

Echometer is one of the few online retrospective tools that can be used to collect feedback anonymously.

In Echometer, feedback can even be collected anonymously before the retrospective via asynchronous surveys, which is unique among online retrospective tools and distinguishes Echometer positively from tools such as the retrospective software Parabol.

Yes, Echometer offers a generous free version of the online retro tool that can be used permanently free of charge for one team. This includes all functions for team retrospectives.

You only have to switch to a paid version for additional functions such as SSO, multiple teams or an unlimited number of retrospectives.

Further information on the variants of Echometer's retro tool can be found on the pricing page here: Retro-Tool Price List

The greatest strengths of the Echometer retrospective tool are its impact on time savings, participant engagement and productivity.

  • With hundreds of ideas for retrospective templates in combination with the integrated surveys, Echometer makes it very easy to prepare great retrospectives in just a few minutes.
  • Thanks to the guided steps and the playful and interactive retrospective board, implementation is child's play, focused and results-oriented at the same time.
  • The integrated tracking of measures and team health makes it easier to recognize trends in the team at an early stage and ensure that measures from retrospectives are not forgotten

Combined with the unique features of the agile Health Checks and flexible whiteboards, Echometer is one of the best, if not the best, retrospective tool on the market, even better than the better-known Parabol retrospective tool.

Yes, Echometer's retro tool is technically secure and GDPR-compliant.

Several European financial institutions and insurance companies have chosen to purchase Echometer's retrospective tools over other alternatives due to strict regulatory requirements.

The data is stored and securely processed in Germany. The contract for commissioned data processing with details on the technical and organizational security measures of Echometer's processing can be viewed here: https://echometerapp.com/gdpr-and-security/

Echometer's tool for retrospectives offers the following integrations:

  • Jira (for easy tracking of measures from retrospectives in Jira boards)
  • Google login
  • SSO (only in paid version)

Echometer are particularly positive about the increase in the effectiveness of retrospectives and the improved measurability of team development through Echometer.

Here are some officially confirmed quotes from users and customers of the Echometer software tool, all of whom hold leadership positions in agile teams:

Duane Hill, Scrum Master Coach:

  • "Echometer is like a combination of Miro and a really smart retro board. It even provides metrics on the effectiveness of my coaching so I can easily spot trends in team development. I really love this tool – highly recommended for anyone who wants to make their retrospectives more effective!"

Lena Tölke, Agile Coach at Deutsche Bahn Sales:

  • "Thanks to the targeted questions in Echometer, we keep coming up with new insights for our further development in retrospectives and can make these transparent and measurable for all team members."

Clemens Schöne, Scrum Master at Communardo Products:

  • "Echometer is like the combination of Mural and EasyRetro – I am thrilled! With Echometer, remote retros can work much better and even be fun!"

Patrick Böttcher-Exner, management position at Relaxdays GmbH:

  • "One major advantage is that Echometer allows us to carry out and track both remote and on-site retrospectives in one tool."

Carina McLane, Senior Software Developer at Volvo:

  • "As a Scrum Master, it's not about the tools, but this one really makes the work a lot more enjoyable. After two years of experience with Echometer, I can recommend it to anyone who wants to enrich their retrospectives and understand their team better!"

Echometer is the perfect retrospective software tool for busy team managers, team leaders, engineering managers, but also scrum masters and Agile coaches in distributed or hybrid agile teams ("remote teams").

Users particularly appreciate how much time the tool saves for retrospective moderators and how it increases the engagement of participants in the retrospective. Therefore, people who value time savings, retrospective effectiveness and engagement benefit most from the functions of Echometer.

In addition, Echometer offers an easy, playful introduction to retrospectives and is therefore particularly suitable for teams that do not yet have much experience with retrospectives or are just starting out with agile working methods.

The Echometer retrospective software works as follows:

  • Simple preparation of retrospectives using templates for retro formats, surveys and whiteboards
  • Intuitive and step-by-step implementation of retrospectives. Possible both online and on-site. Simply use the QR code on site so that participants can take part via their smartphone with the Mobile Companion app.
  • Automatic follow-up through export functions and integrated tracking of developments and measures including retro archive.

The implementation of a retrospective in Echometer is as follows:

  • The retrospective board allows the agile team to start with a fun welcome screen where they can wait for the rest of the team while playing an interactive game.
  • Once all participants of the retrospective have arrived, continue with an icebreaker question. Echometer has several icebreaker question templates, including both open-ended questions and visual whiteboard templates with workshops and small games.
  • After the icebreaker, you reach the screen for tracking measures: Here, the team reviews the open actions from past retrospectives and decides whether to keep, close or discard the actions. This step is unique to Echometer and significantly improves the quality of the continuous improvement process of agile teams.
  • Then it's on to Team Health Check: all team members answer various questions, for example a question about satisfaction in the team or questions about psychological safety. This type of question increases engagement in the retrospective, even with introverted team members, as well as the creation of agile KPIs to track the mood in the team over time.
  • Then you continue with the retrospective board, where everyone can leave anonymous feedback on open questions – if this has not already been done in advance via a survey. There are hundreds of retrospective templates for different retrospectives on the Echometer retrospective board.
  • Feedback is first written face down on the retro board so that the participants do not influence each other. The moderator can then reveal the feedback column by column.
  • Once the feedback on the retro board has been uncovered, presented to the team and any queries about feedback have been clarified, the prioritization, i.e. the voting, can continue.
  • Voting in Echometer is anonymous. During the voting process, you can see how many votes have already been cast and how many are still open.
  • At on-site retrospectives, you can also vote using your smartphone.
  • As soon as the voting is complete, you can derive measures. To do this, you can either create a measure directly for the feedback or open the feedback on a new whiteboard to analyze the problem in more detail and brainstorm ideas for measures.
  • The brainstorming of measures on a separate whiteboard within the retro is a point of differentiation for Echometer compared to other tools for retrospectives such as Parabol. In Echometer, you can create a separate whiteboard for each topic within the retro and thus optimally control the focus of the discussion.
  • Finally, Echometer enables the retrospective to be concluded by anonymously asking the entire team about the ROTI score on a scale of 0 to 10 (i.e. the "Return on Time Invested"): This helps the team and in particular the retrospective moderator to continuously improve the quality of the retrospectives within the team itself.

Given this unique, structured and flexible retrospective process, combined with the range of functions, Echometer is often described as the best tool for agile retrospectives.

Further questions?