Start Stop Continue Retro: Examples, template and guide
The Start Stop Continue Retro is a simple method that helps teams quickly figure out what they should start, stop and continue doing in the future. It is well suited for sprint retrospectives, project wrap-ups and constructive feedback in everyday work.
The three questions are intentionally straightforward:
- Start: What should we start doing to improve the collaboration?
- Stop: What should we stop doing because it slows us down or no longer helps?
- Continue: What is working well and should therefore continue?
In this guide, you’ll find a ready-to-use template, concrete examples, and a process that turns good conversations into actionable improvements.
What is the Start Stop Continue method for retros?
The Start Stop Continue method is a structured discussion about habits, processes, and collaboration. Instead of asking openly what went well or badly, you sort observations into three action-oriented categories: start, stop, or continue.
This makes the format especially effective when a team has little time, is just getting started with retrospectives, or is looking for a clear decision for the next sprint. It is not a substitute for a deeper root-cause analysis. It is a good way to quickly make the right topics visible and derive a concrete change from them.
When the Start Stop Continue retrospective method is especially suitable
Use the method when you need a clear, brief reflection:
- after a sprint or a project phase,
- when a new team is consciously reflecting on how it works together for the first time,
- after a change in tools, roles, or workflows,
- for a feedback round between colleagues or with a manager,
- when there are still unclear improvement requests left over from a previous retrospective.
If the team is currently struggling with conflicts, frustration, or uncertainty, a more emotional format such as the Mad Sad Glad Retrospective may be a better starting point. For more perspectives on processes, the DAKI retrospective.
Start Stop Continue template for the retro
For the method, you only need three columns. What matters is not the board, but that everyone can first gather their own thoughts before the discussion begins.
Start Stop Continue 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.
- Start: What should we start doing?
- Stop: What should we stop doing?
- Continue: What should we keep?
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.
Start Stop Continue retro
The three Start Stop Continue questions for your retro board
| Column | Guiding question | What you pay attention to |
|---|---|---|
| Start | What should we start doing? | Concrete behaviors or experiments instead of vague wishes. |
| Stop | What should we stop doing? | Processes, habits, or obstacles — no personal attacks. |
| Continue | What should we consciously continue doing? | Practices that demonstrably help and are not just convenient. |
How to run a Start Stop Continue retrospective in 45 minutes
1. Set the frame and choose a focus – 5 minutes
Define the time period and goal you are looking at, for example: “How can we deliver more reliably in the next sprint?” Remind the team to talk about observable behavior and processes, not blame.
2. Collect ideas quietly – 7 minutes
Everyone writes down their thoughts on their own first. This phase prevents the first loud opinion from determining the result. One note per thought is easier to sort and evaluate.
3. Cluster and understand together – 10 minutes
Read the cards aloud, group similar points together, and ask for clarification where needed. Do not discuss every solution in detail yet. The goal is a shared picture of the most important patterns.
4. Prioritize – 8 minutes
Have the team vote on the topics that will make the biggest difference in the next cycle. Deliberately keep it limited: one or two good changes are more valuable than a long list without impact.
5. Turn the top points into actions – 10 minutes
Formulate each action with a clear outcome, a responsible person, and a date for review. You can find support for this in our Tips for good retro actions.
6. Agree on a closing and follow-up – 5 minutes
In the next retrospective, first check what became of the agreed measures. Without this step, Start Stop Continue quickly becomes a good conversation without change.
Start Stop Continue examples of feedback in retrospectives
Good feedback is specific enough that the team can recognize it next week. Good feedback describes a problem and perhaps also already includes wishes for change.
Start: What should we begin?
- Before each refinement, share a short agenda and the most important open questions.
- Make blockers visible within one working day instead of waiting for the next daily.
- For complex tickets, schedule a short pairing session before implementation.
- After the Sprint Review, collect feedback from stakeholders in a structured way.
- Record one small experiment per sprint and evaluate it at the end.
Stop: What should we stop doing?
- Start new tasks before ongoing work has been completed or consciously paused.
- End meetings without a goal, agenda, or decision.
- Only discuss bugs shortly before the end of the sprint.
- Make important decisions only in private chats.
- Write down retro actions without naming a responsible person.
Continue: What should we keep?
- Review pull requests with a second person.
- Prepare the demo so that stakeholders can ask real questions.
- Briefly and concretely discuss risks in the daily.
- Share knowledge through pairing, brown-bag sessions, or joint reviews.
- Celebrate small improvements visibly when they have helped the team.
Start Stop Continue feedback examples for employees, colleagues, and managers
The following Start Stop Continue feedback examples show: the three questions work not only for entire teams. In a one-on-one meeting or peer-feedback session, they provide a simple framework for formulating feedback in a concrete and respectful way.
Feedback to a manager
- Start: Share the priorities for the week earlier so the team can plan better.
- Stop: Do not reschedule planned one-on-ones at short notice if it can be avoided.
- Continue: Keep creating space where we can openly address risks.
Feedback among colleagues
- Start: Document important decisions briefly in the shared project channel.
- Stop: Do not hand off tickets without context if others are expected to continue working on them.
- Continue: Keep explaining new technical approaches as patiently as before.
Feedback for your own way of working
- Start: Schedule ten minutes every Friday to prepare for the next week.
- Stop: Do not react immediately to every message when focused work is underway.
- Continue: Get feedback early, before a solution is developed too far.
Always formulate feedback as observable behavior and its effect. “Stop being unreliable” is not a helpful point. “Let us know early if a commitment is no longer realistic,” on the other hand, makes the desired change clear.
Keep Stop Start: Even better than Start Stop Continue?
In essence, the categories mean the same thing: start, stop, and continue. The order does not change the method, but it can influence the mood of the session.
- Start Stop Continue is the most common term and works well for a future-oriented retrospective.
- Stop Start Continue can make sense if a team first wants to deliberately remove obstacles.
- Keep Stop Start starts positively and ends with new ideas. We explain this variant separately in our Keep Stop Start retrospective.
Just because it makes for an easier start (with “Keep”) and a sense of momentum at the end (with “Start”), I recommend, based on our experience, the “Keep Stop Start” sequence rather than “Start Stop Continue”.
But feel free to try it out yourself. More important than the sequence is that you end up with just a few prioritized actions.
Common mistakes with the Start Stop Continue method — and how to avoid them
Too vague feedback cards
“Communicate better” leaves open what specifically should change. Ask about observable behavior: What exactly should happen differently in the future, when, and by whom?
The Stop column becomes personal
The method is meant to improve work, not evaluate people. Replace statements about individual people with statements about situations, rules, or processes.
Too many actions at once: Start, Start, Start
A long list feels productive, but is rarely acted on. Choose a maximum of two improvements and review them in the next retro.
Always the same format: retro fatigue caused by Start Stop Continue
Start Stop Continue is deliberately simple. Once it becomes routine, the perspective shifts and it becomes rather boring and predictable. After a while with the same retro format, a change is worthwhile. In our collection, you’ll find retrospective methods for different situations.
Conclusion: Continuous improvement from three questions
Start Stop Continue is not a complicated framework. Precisely for that reason, it works well: the team collects concrete observations, prioritizes them, and decides on a few next steps.
If you’re looking for a straightforward retro for your team, open the template above directly in Echometer. To get started with the topic of psychological safety, our guide to psychological safety in agile teams.
Frequently asked questions about Start Stop Continue retrospectives
Does the Echometer Retrospective Software Tool have the Start-Stop-Continue, 4Ls, Sailboat, Starfish and Hot Air Balloon Retrospective templates?
Yes, all these well-known retro formats are included in the tool, and many more that your team probably didn’t know about before.
Does the Echometer offer retro templates, ideas and sample questions?
Yes, Echometer offers many high-quality templates for retrospectives and the respective steps of a retrospective.
Echometer is the retrospective software tool with probably the most integrated retrospective template ideas and patterns:
- The retro templates in Echometer include sample questions for the retro board. These are often creatively based on specific themes - such as the “Kart Racing Retrospective” or the “Time Travel Retrospective”.
- Some retro templates also contain templates for Health Checks. For example, to measure the Spotify Health Check or psychological safety in the team.
- When creating a team, you can choose from various team templates for management teams or scrum teams, for example. The team templates then put together a suitable team Health Check for the team.
- For icebreakers in the retrospective, Echometer has over 50 ideas for sample questions that can be used spontaneously and randomly in a retrospective via a random generator.
- And then there are whiteboard templates in Echometer, which contain ideas for check-ins, team building and the development of measures.
Which retrospective formats, templates and techniques lead to real improvements?
The best retrospective templates, formats or techniques that lead to real improvements and action depend heavily on your team and challenges. The “Drive & Drag” format, the “Battery Retrospective” and the “Moral-Health Check”, each from Echometer, often work well. All three retrospective templates can be found in the retrospective software tool Echometer.
I have listed the questions of the 3 retrospective templates and techniques mentioned here:
Battery retrospective
Here is the link to the “Akku” retrospective in Echometer.
- How full is your personal battery as a percentage right now?
- What has drained your battery recently?
- What has recharged your battery recently?
- What would help you to save energy over the next few weeks?
Drive & Drag Retrospective
Here is the link to the “Drive & Drag” retrospective in Echometer.
- What has been driving you recently?
- What has slowed you down recently?
Morale Health Check: query of agreement from 1 (low) to 7 (high)
Here is the link to the “Moral Health Check” retrospective template in Echometer.
- I have enough space for breaks in which I can draw new energy.
- Our meetings are well structured and still leave room for creativity and new things.
- In my team, every team member passes on their individual knowledge and experience.
- We value the achievements and contributions of our colleagues.
- Everyone in my team knows who is currently working on what.
- There is a trusting working atmosphere in our team.
How do you measure the success of a retrospective?
The success of retrospectives is reflected in the fact that agreed measures are implemented and measurable improvements are achieved. In addition to productivity indicators (which should be treated with caution), teams use, for example, the tracking of action items, trends on feedback scales in team health check / pulse check surveys.
