🧟♀️ One thing up front: Find 5 creative Halloween retrospective templates right here! 🎃
Table of Contents
The Retrospective Ideas at a Glance
Before we start, our view on this: These are the best Retrospective Ideas for striving Agile Teams:
- Spotify Health Check: Do we deliver stuff quickly?
- 4L - Liked, Learn, Lack, Long: What did we learn lately?
- Tetris Retrospective: What was the missing piece?
- Glad, Sad, Mad: What made you mad in the last sprint?
- Mario Kart Retro: How to increase our velocity?
- Start, Stop, Continue: What should we start doing?
- Chef’s Retro: Which were the missing ingredients?
- Rose, Bud, Thorne: What things are waiting to blossom?
- Hot Air Balloon Retro: What sandbags are decelerating us?
- Sailboat Retrospective: What is our wind?
What should a retrospective include? Well, a retrospective should include reflecting work from a different angle. Ever had a retrospective with low energy and zero feedback? Right - you don’t want that.
This is why you need a different angle. And why you will find quite a few different retrospective format ideas you did not know yet in this post: If you want to challenge your team morale, do the "Team Morale Health Check". If you need a fresh perspective, do the 7 Dwarfs Retrospective. Or is everyone on vacation? Then go with the vacation retro.
The formats will bring out the creative veins of your team – and definitely maximize the likelihood of one: Valuable Action Items. Let's start with some hints and tips before diving deeper into our fun retro ideas.
Retrospective Scrum meeting: A few hints before we start🚦
If you don't have any experience with agile retrospectives or with retro ideas, you can read through our short and crisp guide: Retrospectives – Everything you need to know.
Good to know: Typically, a Scrum retrospective lasts between 45 (up to 5 team members) and 90 minutes (up to 12 team members). If possible, you should plan for even more time. In any case, in each of the retrospective phases you should actively practice timeboxing. If you are not familiar with these, you can learn more about them here: The 5 phases of a retrospective. If you often have problems with timeboxing, here are some tips for you: A brief retrospective.
Given this tight schedule, you should definitely make sure to have your retro format and retrospective meeting notes well prepared - find some help for that below.
If the Retro Method takes place in a distributed team, you may be wondering: how to conduct a retrospective online? You can find the answer here: retro tool comparison. But to make it short: Our recommendation for this is our tool: Echometer. You will find a button below next to each retrospective method that leads to our tool.
In case you are searching for a sprint retrospective template ppt (i.e., a powerpoint), feel free to just copy the questions and image we have below into a powerpoint presentation. Although it would be even easier to just click on the button beside the retrospective meeting techniques - as you prefer. 🙂
Retrospective scrum meeting: How to start a retrospective meeting 🏁
Before we get to the main part of this post: How do you start a retrospective? If we look back again (The 5 phases of a retrospective)that's pretty easy to answer. You start with an icebreaker, retro check-in questions. If you need some inspiration for that, just take a look here: The best retro check-ins for any context. "Setting the stage" after the check-in questions is an important foundation for the retrospective formats that follow.
The Best Retrospective Ideas: Classics
Let’s start with the best agile retrospectives ideas - or at least the five most common ones, before we focus on different retrospective ideas.
To make it short, I am talking about the scrum retrospective start stop keep (aka start stop continue), the retrospective liked learned lacked (aka “retro liked learned lacked longed for” or 4l retrospective), the mysterious scrum retrospective with 3 questions, the sailboat retro, the mad sad glad retro and “thumbs up, thumbs down, new ideas and recognition”. Find more on them below!
Retrospective idea 1 - Scrum retrospective 3 questions
The What Went Well retro 👍
The "What Went Well" retrospective is probably the most popular or well-known among all the retrospective ideas. It is based on the pattern we find in many other retrospectives, but simply without all the gimmickry around it. Looking at the last sprint cycle, these 3 questions are asked. (Find more benefits of the "What Went Right" retrospective here....)
Open questions
What went well?
What went not so well?
How can we improve?
Retrospective method 2
The Mad Sad Glad retrospective 😯
The mad sad glad retrospective has a similar pattern but uses three typical emotions to make it more interesting for the team to reply to your retrospective questions. A pretty basic retrospective format:
Open questions
What made you mad? 😤
What made you sad? 😢
What made you glad? 🤩
Retrospective idea 3
The Scrum retrospective Start Stop Keep 🔖
The scrum retrospective start stop keep is also known as the start stop continue retrospective. We actively recommend using the “keep stop start retro” (in this order), because it changes how the feedback reinforces a positive effect on the following retrospective question.
Open questions
Keep: What should we keep?
Stop: What should we stop doing?
Start: What should we start doing?
Retrospective idea 4
The retrospective liked learned lacked longed for 📘
The “retro liked learned lacked longed for” is called 4l retrospective because the 4 key questions are each composed by a word beginning with “l” - obviously. Looking at the last weeks or the last scrum sprint:
Open questions
Like: What did you like?
Learned: What did you learn?
Lacked: What did you lack?
Longed for: What did you long for?
Retrospective idea 6
Retrospective idea agile: The Sailboat retrospective ⛵️
Now, with this retrospective idea we are getting more creative making use of a metaphor: The sailboat. Imagine your team or your last sprint as a sailboat.
Open questions
⚓️ 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?
Retrospective method 7
DAKI (Drop Add Keep Improve) Retrospective ✂️
DAKI Retrospective, standing for the English words "Drop Add Keep Improve," is a simple acronym that is also classically used as a retrospective method. (More detailed information on the DAKI Retrospective: 2 tips for the DAKI retrospective incl. examples)
Open questions
Drop: What should we drop?
Add: What should we add?
Keep: What should we keep?
Improve: What should we improve?
Retrospective method 8
Three Little Pigs Retro 🐷
The "The Three Little Pigs" retrospective is based on the fairy tale of the same name, in which 3 pigs build three houses from completely different materials. Of course, the three houses turn out to be differently robust. The question is – what material are the results in your team built from?
Open questions
House of straw: What do we do that is just holding together, but could topple over at any moment? 🌱
House of sticks: What do we do that is relatively stable, but could be improved? 🪵
House of bricks: What do we do that is rock solid? 🪨
Retrospective method 9
The Starfish Sprint Retrospective ⭐️
The starfish sprint retrospective is visually interesting: 5 questions are asked, which can be optimally divided into the columns of a starfish. The sprint retrospective "Starfish" tends to take a little longer with 5 questions.
Open questions
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?
Retrospective method 10
Thumbs up, Thumbs down, new ideas and recognition 👍👎
Before we go into the more creative retrospective meeting formats, another simple and interesting retrospective idea is the following one. It is a very basic retrospective format. Looking at the last sprint:
Open questions
What do you give a "thumbs up" to?
What do you give a "thumbs down" for?
Which new ideas do you have?
Who or what do you want to recognize, highlight positively?
So, thumbs up for these classics? If it's more of a thumbs down, you might like the following retrospective ideas that are even more fun and creative. There are some more playful retrospective methods but also a few Health Checks (more on Agile team health checks here).
Fun Retrospective Ideas: 5 Health-Check-Radar Templates
A radar chart is a nice overview to show the results of Team Health Checks - and as we are developing a retrospective tool that focuses on continuous health checks based on psychology, we can help with that. Here you can find a few retrospective ideas including radar charts.
Agile Retrospective Ideas
Health Check Retro: Spotify Squad Health Check 👩🏻💻
The Spotify Health Check (based on the Spotify model) is one of the classics when it comes to frameworks to scale agile. The nice thing about it: The Spotify Health Check Retrospective can be carried out in tribes (several teams) as well as in individual teams.
Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a scale.
Health Check Items (scale)
Speed: We get stuff done really quickly. No waiting, no delays.
Tech Quality: We’re proud of the quality of our code! It is clean, easy to read, and has great test coverage.
Learning: We’re learning lots of interesting stuff all the time!
Mission: We know exactly why we are here, and we are really excited about it.
Agile Retrospective Ideas
Health Check Retro: The 5 Agile Values 5️⃣
The agile values and principles belong to the basics of a Scrum course. Only when you live up to them, you can reach higher agile maturity levels as a team. This health check helps you to reflect on the 5 agile Scrum values from a different perspective with your team - and to make them measurable. See below for an impression of the questions asked.
Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a scale.
Health Check Items (scale)
Courage: We value people showing courage.
Respect: We value each other’s ideas, even when disagreeing.
Commitment: Every team member is committed to follow through on what they have promised.
Focus: We don’t allow ourselves to be distracted from reaching the sprint goal.
Openness: We are open to constructive feedback and grow from it.
Retrospective Ideas
Health Check Retro: Psychological Safety👮🏼♀️
Since Project Aristotle is from Google Psychological safety is known to be closely correlated to team success. There are specific behaviors, behavioral anchors that will help you measure and discuss Psychological Safety in your team – have fun!
Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a scale.
Health Check Items (scale)
If a team member makes a mistake, they are not judged for it.
You're allowed to not know things in our team.
In conflicts, we talk on a factual level, so that no one feels personally attacked or judged.
I regularly receive useful feedback on how good my performance is and how I can improve.
Agile Retrospective Ideas
Health Check Retro: Team spirit 😇
Your team may seem to be satisfied – but what if you dive a little deeper and talk about some important details? This retro helps to shed a more objective light on team morale. So that you can create creative action items without much effort. You could say it is food for your team maturation process.
Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a scale.
Health Check Items (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.
Retrospective ideas agile: Let’s play games
Now you know some of the classic points for a retrospective meeting that may be the best agile retrospectives or at least the most common ones. Agile teams typically like to have a new remote retrospective format regularly, different retrospective ideas to trigger new thoughts. You can find one or the other freshly developed retrospective question below.
Everyone loves games. Why not use some retrospective scrum games to trigger interesting new thoughts in your team? Of course, you should make sure that everyone knows the games that our retrospective scrum games are based on.
Ideas for retrospective
Not satisfied with your velocity? The Mario Kart Retro 🚗
Racing is as unpredictable as today’s work. Use this fun scrum retrospective meeting template to analyze what lays ahead of you - in a Mario style!
As futurespective
What bananas on the track do we have to look out for?
What’s an upcoming shortcut we could take advantage of?
What powerup could we pick up to ensure our win?
As a retrospective
What shortcuts helped us win?
Which bananas did we slip on?
What was the powerup that gave us an edge?
Ideas for retrospective
Scared of all the challenges? The Pacman retro 🟡
Many of us have vivid memories of playing pacman. Let’s use it to trigger a new perspective on our teamwork:
Open questions
What ghosts were hunting you in the last sprint?
What allowed us to turn from hunted to hunter?
What new tactics might lead us to winning in the future?
Ideas for retrospective
Need to level up? The RPG retro👨🏼💻
Work often feels like a game: With every level (sprint), things get harder. But equally, the game character (our team) develops their strengths to rise up to the challenge.
Open questions
What’s our superpower as a team?
What character class is the hero of the last sprint?
Looking at recent challenges: Which characteristics & skills should we level up as soon as possible?
What’s our next game milestone (e.g., villain to tackle)?
Optional: Who recently rolled a Nat 20 and saved the team?
Agile Retrospective Game | 2
Need more team spirit? Your team pet 🙉
Retro game on the online whiteboard
Duration: 10-15 minutes | Goal: Getting to know each other, team spirit
Idea: If your team would have a pet, which one would it be? Which name would you give it?
- The team can view a few different pets on a digital whiteboard. An image and a few facts about the animal is given.
- Timebox 5-10 minutes: Based on that information, the team is now supposed to choose one of these animals as their pet. Which one fits best to our team spirit, our ways of working etc.? Is it more important to us that it is an intelligent animal, or that it is fun to play with?
- What you might add: The team can choose how they approach this decision. Do you want a democratic vote? Does everyone first collect clear arguments on their own why they would go for a specific pet? Should only the two people decide with the relevant skill set: the ones that already have pets?
- [Optional step] timebox 5 minutes: Of course, you can also let the team give the pet a nice name that perfectly fits its wonderful character.
- Depending on the enthusiasm of the discussions, you might actually want to post an image of the pet with its name on your mutual team page. You have a mascot!
Agile Retrospective Games for distributed teams | 16
Your sprint is difficult to describe? Songs will help 🎹
Retro game on the online whiteboard
Duration: 5-15 minutes | Goal: Setting the stage
Idea: If our last sprint would be a song, what would be the title? Let them choose from given songs or invent their own titles.
- You give the instructions.
- 1-2 minute timebox: Everyone chooses a song title from the given list of songs (see screenshot of the whiteboard) or takes a different one.
Everyone is free to change the title of a song. For example, someone might change the title “Eye of the tiger” from Survivor to “Eye of the customer” (e.g., because they met the actual customer for the very first time). - The person who was the first to make a decision begins to explain their choice and hands over to the next person until everyone gave feedback.
- "Something Just Like This" by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay
- I Took a Pill in Ibiza by Mike Posner
- "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele
- "The Twist" by Chubby Checker
- "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" by Baccarat
- "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO
- „Bad Romance“ by Lady Gaga
- „Shape of You“ by Ed Sheeran
- "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets
- "Wind of Change" by Scorpions
- "Silent Night" by Bing Crosby
- "I Gotta Feeling" by Black Eyed Peas
- "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson (featuring Bruno Mars)
- „Call Me Maybe“ by Carly Rae Jepsen
- "Time to Say Goodbye" by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman
- "I Don't Care" by Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber
- Your favorite songs...
Ideas retrospective
Looking for the missing piece? The tetris retro 👾
Tetris is a fun computer game with the goal to puzzle under pressure. Sounds like work? Well, it kind of is.
Open questions
Which piece fit perfectly into the puzzle in the last sprint?
Which piece did not fit at all?
How many uncleared rows have already accumulated?
When was the last time we cleared multiple rows at once?
What new piece could we invent to fill a gap we have right now?
If these retrospective ideas don't fit into your team Tetris puzzle, then I have a few more pieces for you.
Fun Retrospective Ideas for different Times of the Year
Sometimes it's scalding hot outside, or bitterly cold. This inevitably changes the atmosphere in which one works. The most beautiful are the retrospectives that match the mood of the year. That's why we have developed retrospective templates for the 4 seasons especially for you.
Retrospectives for the summer
Format for retrospective
Too hot in the office? The Summer retro ⛱☀️
In the best case, your team scrum sprint feels like how you imagine summer. A positive vibe everywhere, everything is working smoothly. Although there are some things that make you sweat. This template for retrospective meeting is the right one for the summer:
Open questions
What was the ice cream, your favorite moment?
What made you sweat?
What could be a treat to cope with the summer heat in the future?
Ideas retrospective
Everyone on vacation? The Vacation retro 🏖🗺
Many of your colleagues were or will be on vacation? Then a retrospective question in this regard might be the right fit. Because even leisure time can be stressful. Let’s view our last sprint like vacation time…
Open questions
Which positive memory of your vacation will stay with you?
What part of our vacation plan turned out to be the biggest disappointment?
Which things did we forget to pack for our vacation?
What learnings will we take into the next vacation planning?
Retrospective format scrum
Not in the flow? The Surfer’s retro 🏄🏽♀️ 🌊
Salty water, sun, waiting for the next wave. Surfing can be a lot of fun and look so effortless. How did your team catch the last wave? Are you prepared to catch the next one and ride it all the way to the beach?
Open questions
What made you fall?
When have you been able to show your skills?
What keeps you balanced?
How can you maximize the chances to catch the next wave even better?
Retrospective format scrum
Difficult path ahead of you? The Road Trip Retro 🛣
A road trip to… well, to the destination. The most important thing is that you arrive. Right? Is it all about the goal, or isn't the journey somehow the goal? Reflect on your last stage or sprint with the agile Road Trip Retrospective.
Open questions
What superfluous luggage do we have with us?
What is the mood of the music playing in the background of our vehicle?
When did we (almost) have a flat tire?
Which destination are we particularly looking forward to?
Retrospective format scrum
Missing a crucial ingredient? The Barbecue Retro 🍗
Barbecuing outside in the fresh air – is how you imagine summer to be. But creating the perfect barbecue experience takes a lot. If your team enjoys a good barbecue, the following questions will trigger your creative juices.
Open questions
What is our secret sauce that makes everything better?
Where have we burned our fingers?
What side dishes are we still missing for our barbecue feast?
Fall Retrospectives
Retrospective idea 5
Times have changed? The autumn Retro 🍁
After summer inevitably comes autumn. A time of change, but also of new beginnings and gratitude. It's best to make sure you're prepared for all eventualities early on.
Open questions
🌧🍂 On which slippery wet paths did we (almost) slip?
🌧🌈 What has been your rainbow moment (favorite moment of the sprint)?
🥜🐿 What do we need to prepare to get well through the winter? (Like squirrels prepare nuts for winter)
Ideas retrospective
Lack of creative will? The Farming Retrospective 👩🏻🌾
"Dumb people run, smart people wait, wise people go to the garden" - this is how various writers have put it. Tilling a garden is a complex matter. Pruning the shoots at the right time, planting seeds, harvesting roots is an art. Much like successful teamwork.
Open questions
🌱 What seeds were sown? (new started topics)
🌾 What has already been harvested? (milestones or goals already achieved)
🐞 Which bugs did we have to be careful of? (potential hazards)
🌪 How has the weather affected our harvest?🌪 (external factors that are not under our control)
Online retrospective scrum
Nothing seems at its place? The Spring Cleaning retro 🌼
Quarterly retrospective idea, Project Milestone, Release retrospective Scrum: With Marie Kondō, we didn't just start cleaning our living room and kitchen. We are even taking her to our workplace to bring order to chaos.
Open questions
What sparkles joy, which item should we keep?
What can we throw in the bin?
What can we recycle and reuse - maybe this time for a different challenge?
Retrospective ideas agile: Reflecting the last weeks
Once again, recommended: Feel free to change the remote retrospective format, leave some of the questions out and adapt them to your specific needs and context! The more the virtual agile retrospective ideas fit your context, the better.
Ideas retrospective
Wrong team lineup? The soccer retro ⚽️
Soccer is all about good teamwork. The right people have to be on the pitch. And yet, sometimes you just have a bad day. If your team has some soccer fans, this agile sprint retrospective fits the bill. (For more info on this fun retrospective, click here....)
Open questions
Double pass: Where did we play particularly well together?
Free kick: What chances did we have?
Foul play: When did we break the rules?
Goal: Where did we hit the bull's eye?
Ideas retrospective
Need a fresh start? The Escape Room Retro 🕵🏼
Escape rooms have just the right balance of "pressure" and "fun", like a good retrospective. If the team feels like it's kind of stuck, it's worth trying to break out of your situation. Similar to an Escape Game.
Open questions
What puzzles do we still have to solve?
Where are we running out of time?
Where could communication in the team have been better?
Which challenge did we master pretty well?
Ideas retrospective
Would you like 7 new perspectives? The 7 Dwarfs Retro ⛏
This has nothing to do with the fairy tale of the Seven Dwarfs, but the results can still be fabulously good: Each team member takes 7 different perspectives and is thus virtually forced to empathize: Because each of the 7 dwarfs has an emotional slant from which they view the status quo (e.g. the last Scrum Sprint):
Open questions
Joy: Why is the joyful dwarf joyful considering our situation?
Anger: Why is the angry dwarf angry considering our situation?
Sadness: Why is the sad dwarf sad considering our situation?
Surprise: Why is the surprised dwarf surprised considering our situation?
Fear: Why is the fearful dwarf afraid, given our situation?
Compassion: Given our situation, why does the compassionate dwarf have compassion?
Optimism: Given our situation, why is the optimistic dwarf optimistic?
Fun retrospective scrum
Fires everywhere? The Firefighter’s retro👨🏽🚒🚒
The last thing you want is to put out unforeseen flames at work and be pulled away from your core tasks. But it still happens regularly. Let's prevent it by starting with this retrospective question:
Open questions
When have we been able to make use of our powerful equipment to solve the daily struggles of the citizens we serve?
What was the biggest emergency in your last sprint?
Which preventive measures can we implement to have less emergencies in the future?
Fun retrospective scrum
Too much drama? The Book’s retro 📖
If your last scrum sprint was a book: did you enjoy reading it?
Open questions
If the last sprint was a book, which genre was it?
What were the happiest moments of our protagonist?
What made your book dramatic?
What is necessary for the positive plot-twist you desperately wish for?
Retrospective ideas agile: Conclusion
Once again, what should a retrospective include? It should include the 5 phases I mentioned above - best case with a creative and interesting retrospective idea. We hope that you will try out some of the mentioned agile team retrospective ideas. Once again: If you are searching for a sprint retrospective template ppt (i.e., powerpoint), feel free to copy every retrospective question into powerpoint.
You should have also learned how to conduct a retrospective meeting online, how to start a retrospective meeting, the typical scrum retrospective duration and the best agile retrospectives: the scrum retrospective start stop keep (aka “start stop continue”), the retrospective liked learned lacked (aka “retro liked learned lacked longed for” or 4l retrospective), the scrum retrospective with 3 questions, the sailboat retro and the mad sad glad retro.
Retrospective scrum meeting: Some last hints
As we do not yet have 40 retrospective ideas: if you have any agile team retrospective ideas to add or want to give us feedback after going through all these agile retrospective exercises - just write to us. In case you are generally new to retrospectives (a beginner Scrum Master or Agile Coach), I highly recommend having a look at our free eBook: 20+ tips for really successful retrospectives.
And if you're looking for a free online tool for retrospectives, you may have seen that Echometer is just that.
Have fun trying out the different retro methods in our tool 😄🙌
