Which techniques, ideas, formats and templates for remote retrospectives are suitable for small teams?
Good retrospective templates, ideas, formats and techniques for smaller agile or Scrum teams are summarized in the following table with my personal point distribution. As you can see, Team Morale Health Checks in particular are perhaps the best retrospective formats and techniques for small teams.
Overview & evaluation: The best retrospective templates, techniques & formats in small teams
| Keep, stop, start | Spotify Health Check Retro | Battery retrospective | |
| Commitment factor | 1: Low | 3: High | 3: High |
| Probability of good measures | 2: Medium | 3: High | 2: Medium |
| Probability of new insights | 2: Medium | 3: High | 3: High |
| Simplicity of moderation | 3: High | 2: Medium | 2: Medium |
| Fit for small teams | 2: Medium | 3: High | 2: Medium |
| Recommended software tool | Echometer | Echometer | Echometer |
| Remote and co-located in the office? | Both possible | Both possible | Both possible |
| Overall rating | Medium (10/15 points) | High ( 14/15 points) | High (12/15 points) |
As you can see from the table, the Spotify Health Check Retrospective is a very suitable retrospective template for small teams based on these three templates - and overall.
The typical retrospective flow for smaller teams
The typical flow or structure and agenda of retrospectives in small teams hardly differs from retrospectives in larger teams. One difference is that retros probably take less time overall with fewer team members - but can go more in-depth. In other words, collecting data is faster, grouping and discussing may take a little longer. Personal feedback can also be shared more easily. Here is the prototypical agenda:
- Preparation (1-5 min.): Icebreaker or check-in (“Describe your sprint as a movie title”).
- Collect data (5-10 min.): Silent writing on digital sticky notes.
- Group and discuss (10–20 min.): Summarize similar ideas; prioritize and discuss the most important topics using the voting function, e.g. in the Echometer tool.
- Define measures (10 min.): 1–3 Brainstorm, select and commit to feasible measures.
- Conclusion (5 min.): ROTI score (Return on Time Invested) in the Echometer tool or e.g. one-word check-out.
Software tools for retrospectives in small teams
Here are some tools that should help you with your retrospective in a small remote team.
- Miro or Mural - interactive whiteboards with templates, but “too many” features
- Echometer - my personal recommendation, as it was developed specifically for retrospectives.
- Google Jamboard or Docs - simple and easily accessible, but not optimally designed for retros
- Trello, Jira or Notion - optionally also for tracking measures, which can also be recorded in e.g. the Echometer Retro Tool
Good retrospective templates, questions & techniques for retrospectives in small remote teams
The following templates, ideas, formats and techniques are well suited to conducting agile sprint retrospectives in small remote or virtual teams.
Template 1: Keep, Stop, Start Retrospective
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 continue to do as a team?
- Stop: What should we stop doing as a team?
- Start: What should we start doing as a team, or at least try out?
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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
One of the classics, if not the biggest classic in agile retrospectives, is the “Keep Stop Start” format, which consists of only three questions. It also works very well in small teams.
- Where can I find the template? In the Retrospective Tool Echometer
- Why does the template work? The simple and intuitive structure makes it easy to provide answers.
| Retrospective Questions | Keep: What should we continue to do as a team? | Stop: What should we stop doing as a team? | Start: What should we start doing as a team, or at least try out? |
| Sample answer | Daily’s really help us move forward | We shouldn’t push bugs to prod anymore - more testing? | Team event would be a good idea, e.g. cooking together virtually? |
Template 2: Battery Retrospective
Battery retrospective: 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.
- 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?
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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?
-
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.
Battery retrospective
One of the best retrospective techniques or templates for small remote and virtual teams is the battery retrospective.
- Where can I find the Retrospective template? In the Retrospective Tool Echometer
- Why does the template work? The battery metaphor should resonate very well with every team member.
| Retrospective Questions | 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? |
| Sample answer | 70%: Working on the same task for too long | Rather negative feedback from our customer | Team event was great fun | Let’s only do the Daily three times a week |
Template 3: Spotify Health Check Retrospective
Team Retrospective with Spotify Health Check: 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.
-
Health Check
All team members can answer the health checks anonymously on a scale. Then go through the results of the health checks together and record any additional comments if necessary. If you use the same health checks in several retrospectives, you can also track trends over time in Echometer.
- We enjoy going to work and have a lot of fun working together.
- We always get great support and help when we ask for it!
- We are a great team that works well together.
- We are constantly learning lots of interesting things!
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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.
-
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.
Team Retrospective with Spotify Health Check
Health Check Questions (Scale)
Perhaps the best retrospective technique or template for small remote and virtual teams is the Spotify Health Check retrospective.
- Where can I find the Retrospective template? In the Retrospective Tool Echometer
- Why does the template work? The Spotify Health Check illuminates 11 variables so that even small teams will identify ideas for improvement.
| Retrospective Questions | We enjoy going to work and have a lot of fun working together. | We always get great support and help when we ask for it! | We are a great team that works well together. | We are constantly learning lots of interesting things! |
| Sample answer | Agree, because we regularly organize team events | Agree more, could be better: No help when I was familiarizing myself with the new framework | I agree, because the meetings clarify many things. Maybe they could be even more effective? | I tend to disagree because I have always worked on the same task recently |
Here is a more in-depth introduction to the Spotify Health Check as a video:
FAQs: Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions about ideas for retrospective templates
Which retrospective template or technique is best suited for virtual and remote teams?
In my opinion, the retrospective templates, techniques and formats that are particularly suitable for virtual and remote teams are those that respect and promote psychological safety. For this reason, classics such as the sailboat retrospective, which playfully and metaphorically encourage reflection, are suitable. Team Health Checks, such as those offered by the Echometer software tool, are also suitable as they can be conducted anonymously in remote teams.
Which template or retrospective idea is particularly suitable for small agile teams?
In my opinion, the retrospective templates, techniques and formats that are particularly suitable for small virtual teams and remote teams are team health check retrospectives such as the Spotify Health Check. More in-depth retrospective templates and techniques such as the “5 Why Method” are also suitable, because as a smaller team you have more time for reflection.
Which retrospective software is particularly suitable for small teams and offers corresponding ideas, techniques and templates as features?
The retrospective software tool Echometer is particularly suitable for small teams. Echometer has many templates and formats that are well suited to smaller teams. In addition, various features such as the Team Health Checks help to quickly create psychological safety in small teams.
