Your Favorite Agile Retrospectives. POST THEM HERE AND LETS BUILD THE ULTIMATE LIST by Troy Lightfoot

#9

I’m going to say though, pub lunch for a retro is definitely not the worst :smiley:

#10

One of my favorites that most teams seem to have fun with is the emotional seismograph

  1. Team members write on sticky notes ANY significant event (good, bad, neutral) that occured in the past sprint
  2. Team members place sticky notes on timeline (and stacking duplicates) of when event occured
  3. Each team member then draws an emotional line correlating to the mood they felt to each event throughout the sprint
  4. Team discusses and collaborates on trends or patterns of emotions during sprint
  5. Team dot votes (2 votes each) on the most important events to talk about in more detail
  6. Team then writes on sticky notes what went well compared to the previous emotional graph/retro notes
  7. Team then writes on sticky notes what they can improve upon to make the team more happy
  8. Dot voting occurs again to the top 2 most important improvement items the team would like to accomplish for next retrospective.

(picture shows a retro for a program increment/multiple sprints)

retro pic.JPG4032×3024 1.58 MB

#11

One-word retros. Love. :slight_smile:

#12

I often use 4Ls or Stop-Start-Continue. In the spirit of mixing things up I’ve had success with:

  • Fishbone / Ishikawa Diagram.
  • 6 Thinking Hats (used for a release-level).
  • Alignment with the 12 Agile Principles (Which items resonate as positives, which as need improvement).
  • At a team’s request, I’ll facilitate the alignment exercise using the 7 Wastes of Software Development.
  • For team discovery, I’ve used Management 3.0’s Moving Motivators (https://management30.com/product/workouts/champfrogs-organizational-change-management/)
#13

First off I like many of the retrospective techniques already called out here.

A personal favorite that I’ve run a few times is a Lego retrospective. Basically you need a good big old pile of Legos of various types and have the team members build a representation of the last sprint using the Legos. Once completed have each person show their creation (or if team members joined together have them show the joint creation) and let the other team members attempt to guess what the meaning of the creation is. Then have the creator(s) say what they really meant by their creation and allow any conversation that might come of that. Rinse and repeat with the other creator(s)

What I liked most about this one is it’s really different from your standard format and allows the team some serious creativity.

Here is an article where I originally got the idea though I don’t run it exactly like this article states.

I’m going to let others chime in on this thread first before I share more of my favorites. Will give me a good reason to come visit the site the next few days. :slight_smile:

Cheers and happy retroing

#14

I like to do Two Truths and a Lie. I switch it to Two Truths and a Wish depending on the audience.

#15

wow thanks everyone! This is a great list so far. I updated the OP

#16

I’ve always wanted to try Two Truths and a Lie but never have found a good environment or way to use that one. Do you have an example of your use of this one you could share @Scrummando?

#17

I like to us it break things up as something to break up the mainstream retrospectives or when the team needs something a little fun. It generates a lot of great discussions around incorrectly guessed lies (wish) that were truths. A lot of the lies are usually half-truths. So generating insights for further discussion happens more organically.
It does not translate well to a distributed team without video.

#18

A few more

  1. Keep collaborating and nobody explodes: https://www.happymelly.com/keep-collaborating-and-nobody-explodes/
  2. The Fear and Vulnerability retro: https://www.frontrowagile.com/blog/posts/109-the-fear-and-vulnerability-retrospective
#19

I tried the Speed Car retrospective with my team and it was fairly simple. The team felt comfortable talking about what’s slowing them down and what’s putting them on a faster track to deliver a working product increment. It was good to gather the content with the focus on value being delivered.

#20

Which one of these do you suggest that work well with virtual teams (half onshore half off)…?

#21

I’ve used collaborative whiteboards (boardthing has been a go-to, but trello as well) for virtual or distributed teams with a fair amount of success. Less a retrospect technique, but I also use a survey - like the Happiness Metric, but re-dubbed “Sprint Satisfaction” (not wanting to suggest to my teams “thou shalt be happy or else”). There’s always 2 required free-text options for “What would it take to get your satisfaction higher” and “What’s one thing you would change”.

The survey is sent in advance of retro, and the responses often become discussion points during retro. I use this w/ co-located teams as well, but have found it especially useful in the distributed setting. I’ve worked with offshore teams where there was more of a deferential attitude where the on-shore team or the team leads were seen as having more of a voice. The survey allows for all team members to contribute.

#22

Definitely going to save this one for later

#23

Updated the OP

Here is @rajanikasturi speed car retro he was mentioning.

Speed Car:

http://www.funretrospectives.com/speed-car-abyss/

#24

Here’s a sample of the Sprint Satisfaction Surveys I use. We have a fair number of our teams using this or modified versions of it. I don’t always throw in a bonus question, but will use ones like “What’s our super power?” What’s our kryptonite?" “What services does the team provide?” or items that hone in on a specific Agile principle/value.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/D936V3G

#25

I love using

  1. timeline exercise combined with the “sad face/smiley face” categorization of event on the timeline
    Screen Shot 2017-07-21 at 1.32.42 PM.jpg1242×818 275 KB
  2. Story cubes for “Setting the stage” where everyone can pick an image that represents his/her emotion at the beginning of the retrospective or an image that remind them of their last Sprint. Fun way to start a retrospective that helps to engage equally introverts and extraverts. Also works great with the teams that have non-english speakers.
#26

Love the story cubes. They are really priced low too:



Reminded me of “Muse Cubes” which I use for long meeting sessions to keep the energy going.

#27

The dixit retro is another variation of the story cubes. I posted about it earlier in the thread. Awesome everyone!

#28

Another one I like that I just used with one of my teams today is “I like…, I wish…, I wonder…”. Here are a couple of write-ups I found on this one.

I personally like to do this one without stickies up on the board. I like to give the team 5 minutes to think about “I like, I wish, I wonder” items and stickies they can write their thoughts on but when it comes time to discuss them I have each person go one at a time and tell one of their items. Make sure everyone gives at least one before doing a second round and so forth till the team runs out. Lots of good conversation has come out of this activity every time I have done it.

Happy Retrospectiving Folks!

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