3 Fun Retrospective Ideas for Valentine's Day
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? That’s right - so it’s exactly the right time to reflect “lovingly” in writing on the last few weeks of your agile Scrum team.
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 methods for you that try to use Valentine’s Day and the theme of “love” or “affection” as a retrospective method. One thing first: If you are interested in more retrospective methods, take 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 something like Friend’s Day. So here, not only partners but also friends are included. So, let’s take a look at our previous relationship patterns: What is friendly, what is true love - and what is perhaps not romantic at all?
Valentine's Day Retro ❤️: How the retro works
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Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
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Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
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Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
- Share a meme of your choice on the whiteboard that characterizes the sprint.
- 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?
- What's your favorite quote from this retro?
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Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
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Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
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Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
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Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
Valentine's Day 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!
First Date Retro: How the retro works
-
Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
-
Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
-
Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
- Share a meme of your choice on the whiteboard that characterizes the sprint.
- 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?
- What's your favorite quote from this retro?
-
Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
-
Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
-
Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
-
Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
First Date 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
The basic idea: This is a so-called Emoji Retro: Based on the emojis and the questions mentioned, each team member reflects on the last sprint on the online whiteboard.
1. Detailed facilitation instructions (Retrospective Games for new Teams)
- As a moderator, you explain the rules to each team member: Based on the emojis and the associated 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?
- Ideally, the 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 are continued.
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
The basic 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 few weeks or the last agile sprint in a fun way, we use a "relationship status" metaphor.
For managers: developing team members in 1-to-1 meetings
Many managers have regular one-on-one meetings with their employees - but don’t get everything out of them. This meeting routine - in addition to agile retrospectives - is of course also suitable for developing teams further.
That’s why I would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to our 1:1 meeting tool. It combines short Health Check surveys with an AI assistant that makes employee development much easier for you.
The following template will give you a feel for what kind of questions you can reflect on and measure with Echometer in your 1-to-1 meetings. Try it out using the button without login:
⁉️ Mood check (Agreement from 1-7): Personal development
- "My work tasks usually progress very quickly, even if external feedback is necessary."
- "When I observe suboptimal behavior, I know how to constructively point it out to colleagues."
- "I receive constructive feedback on both my work and my personal development."
- "I see an attractive career path ahead of me in the company." #Growth
- "In the last few weeks, I have very often been able to use my strengths at work."
This is what this survey looks like in Echometer:
Retrospective Methods 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 ).
"Many team members are afraid to speak up!"
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