3 effective example points for your sprint retrospective
When it comes to surviving in the fast-paced work environment, you have to work in a very agile way yourself. This way of working, also known as “agile work”, has experienced a massive upswing in the last 20 years.
A very important part of agile working are the regular reflections in the team about what went well and what could have gone better. These reflections are also known as agile sprint retrospectives.
In this blog article, I’ll show you examples of points that can be discussed in such a retrospective and give you the templates to go with them.
Sprint Retrospective Example Points
Points for a good retrospective
Some possible points that can be addressed in a retrospective are:
- What worked well in the sprint and what didn’t?
- What did the team learn, what was missing, and what did they want?
- What obstacles or challenges has the team experienced?
- What new ideas or opportunities did the team discover?
- What specific actions can the team take to improve in the next sprint?
These are the most essential points that should be discussed in a retrospective. There are countless retrospective templates that provide you with a framework within which these points are clarified.
If you want to dive a little more into the details of good retrospectives, this is the article for you: The Secrets of Effective Sprint Retrospectives: A Real-World Example
Sprint Retrospective Example Points
1. Keep Stop Start Retrospective Template:
First, I’ve brought a retrospective template that fits any occasion. It’s short, crisp, and addresses the three essential points to analyze a sprint.
Keep stop start 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.
- Keep: What should we keep?
- Stop: What should we stop doing?
- Start: What should we start doing?
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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.
Keep stop start retro
Sprint Retrospective Example Points
2. Three Little Pigs Retrospective Template: 🐷
Secondly, I brought an agile retrospective template that plays with an allegory. In this case, you imagine you want to protect yourself from the big bad wolf from the fable “The Three Little Pigs.”
There are many retrospectives where you have to think yourself into a certain situation. However, you don’t just do it for fun, but thinking yourself into a situation outside your field makes it easier for you to get your thoughts and thus increase the yield of the points in the retrospective.
Three Little Pigs 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.
-
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.
- 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?\n 🪵
- House of bricks: What do we do that is rock solid? 🪨
-
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.
Three Little Pigs Retro 🐷
Sprint Retrospective Example Points
3. Starfish Retrospective Template:
The last thing I brought is a somewhat more extensive retro. Instead of the classic three points, this one has five to think about. These additional points open up new perspectives and make for an even more fruitful retrospective. I personally recommend retros with 4 or even 5 points only to smaller teams, so that the retrospective can be held in a manageable time frame.
Starfish 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.
- 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?
-
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.
Starfish Retro ⭐️
Of course, we have many more templates up our sleeve. Try them out by testing our tool or have a look at this article: 26 Refreshing Agile Retrospective Templates
Sprint Retrospective Example Points
Conclusion - Example points for sprint retrospectives
With a sprint retrospective, you can regularly reflect on your team’s activities and derive potential for improvement. To do this as efficiently as possible, there are proven points to go over in a retrospective, such as: “What worked well in the sprint and what didn’t?”
There are different points for the different occasions of a retrospective, which can usually be found in so-called retrospective templates.
Echometer provides you with more than 50+ retro templates that will help you prepare a whole retrospective in just 2 minutes.
Feel free to try it out:
