3 Start Stop Continue Examples and Alternatives
You just searched for the “Start Stop Continue Retrospective” on Google or want to see examples and alternatives? Great, then you’ve come to the right place🎉
The Stop Start Continue Retrospective is a classic when it comes to agile retrospectives. Of course, it’s no wonder that one or the other team has already held them many times and is looking for something different (I’ll show you alternatives later)👀.
But just as often it happens that due to the popularity of the Start Stop Continue retrospective, people are looking for examples to make it even better in the future🔍
Start Stop Continue Examples
The 3 questions to ask at the Start Stop Continue Retrospective🤔.
First things first: From my point of view, the “Start Stop Continue Retro” is an optimization retro. In fact, the three questions asked in the Start Stop Continue Retrospective cover all the basic questions regarding the activities optimization of a Sprint.
🌞What should we launch because it makes the upcoming sprint better?
☔What should we leave alone because it makes the upcoming sprint better?
⚡What should we definitely keep because it worked great?
If you want to try this retrospective or any of 50+ other templates for free, you can do so in our agile team continuous improvement tool:
Start Stop Continue Questions + Examples
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.
- Continue: 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
As can be seen in the diagram, there are the following three questions of the “Start Stop Continue Retro”👀
What do we want to launch? (Start)⚗️
💡Example: You have the feeling that not everyone in your team dares to speak up. The so-called “psychological safety” should therefore be improved. So you could start by carrying out an agile team health check in 3 steps in the team.
👉🏽More info: Psychological safety and Team Health Checks in 3 steps .
Typical examples of starting points can also be:
- Weekly micro-feedback rounds to identify early problems.
- A joint review of the sprint goals with clear expectations for all roles.
- Establishing a short “Start of Day” check-in so that everyone on the team feels seen.
- The introduction of an experiment board to transparently record areas for learning.
- Testing new automations for recurring tasks to free up time.
What do we want to let be? (Stop)⛔️
💡Example: You were very dissatisfied with the new tool that is supposed to help with prioritizing & transparency of the Product Backlog. It should definitely not be used any further.
Other things that teams should often stop doing:
- Ad-hoc meetings without a clear goal that interrupt the sprint flow.
- Too many parallel tasks per person, which leads to context switching and delays.
- Ignoring blockers because you hope to solve them “later”.
- Clarifying responsibility for bugs only at the end of the sprint, instead of communicating early.
- Missing feedback loops in the review, which ensure that lessons learned are not shared.
What do we want to keep? (Continue)✅
💡Example: It’s good to look at agile metrics like your team’s velocity from time to time - that’s been going well lately!
👉🏽More info: Agile metrics
Some habits that teams should continue to cultivate:
- Weekly demo sessions to schedule stakeholders regularly.
- The structured retrospective with clear next steps and responsibilities.
- Joint definitions of done that keep everyone on the same page.
- Transparent burndown charts so that progress and risks remain visible.
- Knowledge sharing within the team, e.g. via pairing or brown-bag sessions.
"Many team members are afraid to speak up!"
Solve this challenge
"We discover too many unexpected issues & bugs at a late stage!"
Solve this challenge
"Why does it sometimes take me hours to prepare a simple retrospective?"
Solve this challengeStart Stop Continue Alternatives
Please not too much of a good thing!🙅🏽♀️
As popular as the Start Stop Continue Retro may be, this retrospective can become monotonous. Too much monotony over several retrospectives can harbor real dangers that go beyond boredom. That’s why we’re giving you a few suitable alternatives below so that this monotony doesn’t even arise💤
Change of perspective: As described in the introduction, the Start Stop Continue Retro is a retro that is very much aimed at optimizing activities. However, agile working is a much more complex topic than just “optimizing activities”🚀
With the Mad Sad Glad Retrospective For example, you can also take a closer look at the negative emotions that prevail in the team during a lean period👻.
👉🏽More info: Mad Sad Glad Retrospective
Also, a retro, like the DAKI (Drop Add Keep Improve) Retro, add another interesting dimension to the Start Stop Continue Retro and thus expand the horizon🌍.
👉🏽More info: DAKI Retro
Or you simply want to approach a retro with a little more fun and therefore choose, for example, the Soccer Retrospective⚽
👉🏽More info: Soccer retro
I could continue this list forever. If you are interested in seeing not only these three, but 26 alternatives to the Start Stop Continue retrospective, please read our blog article on the subject: 26 Refreshing Agile Retrospective Templates in 2026
Conclusion - Start Stop Continue Retrospective
As the examples show, the “Start Stop Continue” Retrospective covers the essential facets of a retrospective well. However, there are also alternative retro formats that highlight other aspects more strongly (e.g. emotions) or simply bring more variety and creativity.
My recommendation: If you are simply looking for a crisp retro to reveal optimization potential in your team, then the Start Stop Continue Retrospective is the perfect choice - also very beginner-friendly 🎉
Do you want to start your first Start Stop Continue Retrospective right away? Then try out our Echometer tool for continuous improvement of agile teams💥.
Keep stop start 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.
- Continue: What should we keep?
- Stop: What should we stop doing?
- Start: What should we start doing?
-
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.
Keep stop start retro
