Every year on February 14th is Valentine's Day. Did you know that supposedly over 1 billion letters are sent every year on Valentine's Day? Right – it is the perfect time to reflect the last weeks or Sprint of your agile Scrum team in a fun way.
Experience shows that retrospective ideas that fit a current event go down particularly well in agile teams.
In this post we have developed 3 retrospective ideas for you, which use Valentine's Day and the topic "love" or "affection" as a retrospective format. One thing in advance: If you are interested in more retrospective ideas, have a look at the corresponding article: 54 Kickass Retrospective Ideas for Beginners and Professionals.
Retrospective format Valentine's Day
Retrospective idea 1: Pure romance?
In Finland, Valentine's Day is called Ystävänpäivä –, which means Friend's Day. Thus, not only partners but also friends are included. So, let's take a look at our previous relationship patterns: What is friendship, what is real love – and what is perhaps not romantic at all?
Check in
Share a meme of your choice on the whiteboard that characterizes the sprint.
Open Feedback Questions
What has been the best moment in our team relationship so far?
What didn't feel romantic at all in the last sprint?
What do we still need to work on in our relationship?
Check out
What's your favorite quote from this retro?
Retrospective format Valentine's Day
Retrospective idea 2: Our Relationship Status
About 110 million roses are sold on Valentine's Day. Before you give a rose, you should seriously put your relationship to the test. For example, with the following simple questions. I recommend adapting them to your context!
Check in
Share a meme of your choice on the whiteboard that characterizes the sprint.
Open Feedback Questions
What is our relationship status with the last sprint: A) It's complicated, B) Just married, C) Union of convenience, or D) It can't go on like this.
What things have helped strengthen our relationship?
What disappointed you?
What new things would you like to try?
Check out
What's your favorite quote from this retro?
Retrospective Games for New Teams | 1
Method 3: Right through the heart
1. Retro game on online whiteboard
Duration: 30-60 minutes | Goal: Fun, reflection of the last Scrum Sprint
Idea: This is a so-called Emoji Retro: Based on the emojies and the corresponding questions, each team member reflects on the last sprint on the online whiteboard.
- As a facilitator, you explain the rules to each team member: Based on the emojis and the corresponding questions, each team member reflects on the last sprint.
- What made you happy?
- What broke your heart?
- Who deserves a rose?
- What is good news from the future?
- Optimally, feedback is first collected individually and anonymously on the whiteboard (for example, in Echometer).
- In the next step, everyone presents the results individually and the further phases of the retrospective continue.
Agile Retrospective Icebreaker Valentine's Day
The Retro Icebreaker: Relationship status
Retro game on the online whiteboard
Duration: 3-10 minutes | Goal: Start of the retrospective
Idea: This is an icebreaker for agile retrospectives, which you can find in our template library, for example. To start the reflection of the last weeks or the last agile sprint in a funny way, we use a "relationship status" metaphor.
Retrospective Ideas Valentine's Day – Conclusion
According to statistics, about 220,000 marriage proposals are made on Valentine's Day. Did that work out for your retro, too? Haha, I guess that is not necessary. It is important that you grew together as a team - and came up with some good action items (more on that: 8 tips for good action items).
If you're interested in more retrospective ideas, as I said, check out our related post: 54 Kickass Retrospective Ideas for Beginners and Professionals.
You can also find many more retrospective formats in our Retrospective and Health Check Tool Echometer (Read more: Comparing the 6 best retrospective tools).
