In this article, we'll show you some examples of different types of sprint retrospective templates that you can use for your agile team. We'll also give you some tips and best practices for running effective sprint retrospectives:
Sprint Retrospective Templates + Download
Examples of different types of templates for sprint retrospectives
There are many different sprint retrospective templates available on the web, each with its own features, advantages and disadvantages. Depending on your team's needs and preferences, you can choose the template that best suits you. Here are some examples of popular sprint retrospective templates that you can access directly online:
1. Retrospective Icebreaker Template
For a good retrospective, you first have to get started. To achieve this, there are so-called "icebreakers". These are often designed funny and have only one purpose – to break the ice of your team for the retro and thus to involve them more in the retrospective:
Retro icebreaker game:
Sprint Retrospective Templates + Download
2. Keep Stop Start Retrospective Template:
Of course, after an icebreaker come the classic retrospective questions. One of the most popular templates for this is the simple Keep Stop Start Retrospective:
Open Feedback Questions
Keep: What should we keep?
Stop: What should we stop doing?
Start: What should we start doing?
Sprint Retrospective Templates + Download
3. Three Little Pigs Retrospective: 🐷
Of course, you can also wrap a retrospective in a real story. This is exactly what happened with this Reto, which is based on the fairy tale of the same name.
Open Feedback 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? 🪨
Sprint Retrospective Templates + Download
4. The Campfire Retro:🔥
And last but not least, you can of course create a very specific mood with a retro.
How about a cozy campfire, for example? – Attention please make sure that you do not set a real fire at your office 😉:
Open Feedback Questions
Warm fire: What made you feel good in the last sprint?
Turned to ashes: What did not work as desired and crumbled to ashes?
The shooting star: What do you wish for the future?
Of course, we have many more templates up our sleeve. Try them out by testing our tool or have a look at this article: 22 Refreshing Agile Retrospective Templates
Sprint Retrospective Templates + Download
Does it make sense to use an offline retro template?
Basically, I would not recommend using an offline template for retrospectives, as this comes with many disadvantages. Even if you hold the retros "on-site" with the team, online retros have advantages, such as digital pre-screening.
Here are some advantages of online retros, which is why I personally don't use offline retros or templates anymore:
- Online retrospectives are more convenient and accessible. You don't have to worry about downloading, printing or distributing the templates to your team members. You can simply share a link or invite them to join an online platform where they can access and edit the templates in real time. This is especially useful if you have a team working in different locations or time zones.
- Online retrospectives are more interactive and engaging. You can use different features and tools to make your retrospectives more fun and collaborative. For example, emojis, stickers, gifs, or polls are a great way to express your feelings, opinions, or preferences. You can also use chat, audio or video to communicate with your team members and share your feedback. And features like timers, reminders, and notifications help keep your retrospectives on track and focused.
- Online retrospectives are more flexible and customizable. You can easily customize and modify the templates to fit your team's needs and preferences. You can choose from a variety of templates that are available online. Moreover, you can create your own templates or combine different elements from different templates. Last but not least, you can save, export or share your retrospectives with other teams or stakeholders.
I think it's pretty clear that we don't recommend downloading offline retrospectives. If you still want to do it, you can use for example this Excel template we created HERE.
Please note that you cannot edit it in the original file. However, you can click on "File" > "Download" > "microsoft excel (.xlsx)" to download the template and paste it into your own Excel spreadsheet, where you can do whatever you want with it.
Sprint Retrospective Templates + Download
Tips and best practices for effective sprint retrospectives.
Using a sprint retrospective template can make your meetings more productive and efficient. However, there are also some tips and best practices you should follow to ensure your retrospectives are effective and meaningful. Here are some of them:
- Prepare: Before the meeting, make sure all participants have access to the template and know how to use it. It also makes sense to ask participants to think about their feedback and write it down beforehand.
- Set a clear goal: State the purpose and goal of the retrospective at the beginning of the session. The ground rules and expectations for the discussion should also be established.
- Encourage participation: Make sure everyone has a chance to speak and provide feedback during the meeting. You can also use techniques such as voting, grouping, or point voting to prioritize the most important or relevant topics.
- Focus on solutions: After identifying the problems or challenges, try to find concrete actions or solutions that the team can implement in the next project or sprint. Assign responsibilities and deadlines for each action item.
- Follow-up: After the meeting, document the results and share them with the team. You can also monitor the progress and impact of the action items and report back to the team regularly.
For all these best practices, we have developed features in our own tool "Echometer" that allow you to easily prepare a retrospective in less than 2 minutes and implement all best practices without having to worry about it.
By the way, we also have many seasonal retrospective ideas in it (for example: 6 Thanksgiving Retrospective Ideas).
Try our tool with more than 50 retrospective templates for free:
