The 3 Most Simple Retrospectives

Anyone who regularly holds retrospectives or would like to do so should have a good repertoire of retrospectives to hand. It’s not just about knowing lots of retrospectives. Rather, it is about having a suitable retrospective to hand for every situation.

You can have a retrospective for special occasions such as Easter, Halloween or Christmas, for example. But it is even more important to have suitable retrospectives for different situations your team is in. If your team has been lacking energy lately, you can use the “Battery Retrospective” to investigate this circumstance in more detail. See also: Creative retrospective ideas

But probably the most important and most common case is when you don’t have much time in the stress of everyday life. This is exactly when simple, short and quick retrospectives are important.

And that’s exactly why I’m going to show you 3 retrospectives that, despite their brevity, don’t lose their effectiveness.

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Not sure what retrospectives are and how they help your team? Then start here:

• Added value of retrospectives (simply explained)
• Quick guide for retrospectives

How to do a simple retrospective?

What makes a retrospective simple:

In addition to a crisp retrospective template, there are other influences that make retrospectives quick and easy. With these points, the retro goes faster and the quality increases at the same time:

• #1 Preparation of the retrospective: Clear preparation of a retrospective is very important, especially when things need to happen quickly. 
  Implementation tip: With a clearly tested retro agenda, you only need to decide on a suitable retro template to be able to maintain a high-quality retro.
• #2 Preparation of answers: Not only you, but also your team should be prepared for the retro and know what they want to talk about.
  Implementation tip: The easiest way is to ask the team members to answer the questions before the retrospective. This saves time in the retrospective and even improves the quality of the content.
• #3 Clear prioritization: If things need to move quickly, you can’t dwell on unimportant points. It is therefore very important to clearly prioritize the points to be discussed during the retrospective.
  Implementation tip: First of all, everyone should know what answers there are to the retro questions. Then everyone can select their top 3 answers that they would like to talk about in more detail. The answers that are in the top 3 for most people are also prioritized the highest.
• #4 Time limit: Work expands if you allow yourself too much time to complete it. It therefore makes sense to limit the time for subtasks.
  Implementation tip: Work with a timer or stopwatch. It may seem unusual at first, but the increased concentration will lead to faster results.

If you only integrate these 4 points into your next retrospective, you will notice how much easier it will be. In our tool “Echometer” we have integrated all these aspects, so that you don’t even have to think about whether you take them into account.

But for now, I’d like to introduce you to 3 simple retrospectives that are hard to beat in terms of brevity, speed and simplicity:

The “What Went Well” retrospective is the simplest and most used retro technique in our tool. It asks the most basic questions of a retrospective in a very understandable way:

In a retrospective, you don’t always have to find complex answers to questions. Health check retrospectives are about ranking different metrics on a scale from “Very Good” to “Bad.”
Within a few minutes you have a clear overview of whether the team is “doing well” in the queried metrics. This makes health check retrospectives like the “Spotify Health Check” one of the fastest retrospectives in the world.

Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a 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.
• Other items (customizable)

One retrospective, one question and endless possibilities. In the Lean Coffee Retrospective, you can talk about anything your heart desires. Because sometimes no retro template is the best retro template.

Attention: I recommend this retro when there is little time and you want to see if there is something on the team members’ minds. Alternatively, you can use it if certain topics have already been decided in advance and you don’t need specific questions to initiate a discussion.

Nevertheless, use a retrospective for this, as a clear framework and process increases the quality of the conversation.

Simple Retrospectives - Conclusion

It doesn’t matter whether it should be a simple, fast or short retrospective. With the 4 tips and 3 retro templates you are optimally prepared for this. If you would like to expand your retro repertoire even more, feel free to try out our tool, where you can test all templates or read this article: 54 fun retrospective methods for agile teams