What is a retrospective?
A retrospective, or retro, is a short meeting where a team looks back at a stretch of work and agrees what to change next time. This template uses three columns: what went well, what was a struggle and what to improve. Everyone writes their own cards first, in private, so the first opinion said out loud doesn't set the tone for the rest. Then all the cards are revealed at once, grouped into themes and voted on, and the team turns the top themes into one to three actions, each with an owner and a date. A good retro is blameless: it looks at how the team worked, never at who got what wrong.
- Best for
- Teams finishing a sprint, project or busy month who want the next one to go better
- Time
- 45–60 mins
- Who joins
- 3 to 12 people who did the work together
- You leave with
- The team's themes, ranked by vote, and 1–3 actions, each with an owner and a date.
When to use a retrospective
Use it at the end of every sprint, after a launch or a project, after a deadline or an incident that went badly, or once a month if your team doesn't work in sprints. It also helps when the same problems keep coming back, when only a few people speak up in team meetings, or when the actions from the last retro quietly disappeared.
How to run a retrospective
Agree first what you're looking back on, such as the last sprint, the project or the month, and write it at the top. Check what happened to the actions from last time, and remind everyone that you're looking at how you worked, not at who. Then give everyone five to ten minutes to write cards on their own, one point per card, in three columns: Going well, Struggling and To improve. Reveal all the cards at once, group the ones that say the same thing into themes and give each theme a short name. Give everyone three dots to vote in secret for the Struggling and To improve themes they most want to talk about. Start with a quick look at what went well, then take the top themes in vote order and ask why each one happened, not who caused it. Finish with one to three actions, each with one owner and a date.
Questions to ask in each section
01Focus
- Which sprint, project or period are we looking back on?
- What happened to the actions we agreed last time?
02Going well
- What went well that we want to keep doing?
- What helped you do your best work this time?
03Struggling
- Where did work get stuck, slow down or have to be redone?
- What made the work harder than it needed to be?
- What in how we work made this likely to happen?
04To improve
- What one change would make next time easier?
- What should we start, stop or do differently?
05Actions
- What exactly will we do, and how will we know it's done?
- Who owns it, and by when?
Worked examples
A sprint that shipped late
A SaaS team of six engineers, a designer and a product manager, after the new billing page shipped three days late.
- Sprint 14: the new billing page
- Pairing on the payment edge cases
- Design and engineering talked every day
- No bugs reported after release
- Code reviews waited two days (5 dots)
- Scope changed mid-sprint (4 dots)
- Flaky tests blocked merges (2 dots)
- Review code within one working day (3 dots)
- Freeze the scope at sprint planning (2 dots)
- Ana sets up a daily review slot by Monday
- Ben adds a scope check to sprint planning by the 14th
Common mistakes
- Skipping the private writing, so the first opinion said out loud sets the tone for everyone else.
- Looking for someone to blame. Once people feel judged, they stop saying what really happened.
- Showing the votes as they come in, so everyone piles onto the early favorite.
- Discussing every card a little instead of the few themes the team voted for.
- Ending with a long list of actions nobody owns. One to three, each with one owner and a date, is enough.
- Never checking last time's actions, so the same problems come back every sprint.
- Only talking about problems. What went well is worth keeping on purpose.
Let Tedi run your retrospective
On a whiteboard, everyone sees the first notes go up and adjusts their own, and someone has to sort fifty notes while the room waits. In the session everyone writes in private: teammates can see that cards are landing in each column, but not what they say or who wrote them. When the writing ends, every card turns face up at once and Tedi groups them into themes on the shared board. The dot vote stays secret until the host reveals it. Then Tedi runs the discussion out loud, keeps it on causes rather than culprits and writes each action into the Actions box with its owner and date. The summary lists the themes, the votes and the actions.
- One shared canvasEveryone adds notes at the same time, in the room or remote.
- A facilitator in the roomTedi keeps each section moving and draws in the quiet voices.
- A written outcomeDecisions, owners and next steps, captured before anyone leaves.
Retrospective FAQ
What is a retrospective?
A short meeting at the end of a sprint, project or busy stretch where the team looks back at how it worked and agrees what to change next time. It ends with a few actions, each with an owner and a date.
What goes in the three columns?
Going well is what to keep doing. Struggling is where work got stuck, slowed down or caused frustration. To improve is the changes you'd like to try. The vote and the discussion focus on the last two.
Why does everyone write in private first?
Because the first opinion said out loud sets the tone, and people adjust what they write to fit it. Writing in private first gets each person's honest view, and the quiet people are heard as much as anyone.
Are the cards anonymous?
Yes. Cards never show who wrote them. While the team writes, everyone sees that cards are landing but not what they say, and the dot vote stays secret until the host reveals it.
What does blameless mean?
The retro looks at how the team worked, not at who got what wrong. When something went badly, you ask what made it likely to happen, such as an unclear handoff, a missing check or too much work at once, and fix that. People only say what really happened when they don't expect to be blamed.
How long does it take?
About 45 to 60 minutes: a few minutes to agree the focus and check last time's actions, 5, 7 or 10 minutes of private writing (the host picks), then the themes, the vote, the discussion and the actions.
Can we run it alongside Microsoft Teams or Zoom?
Yes. Teams Facilitator has video built in, but you can keep your call in Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet and run the session in a browser tab alongside it. Everyone writes on their own laptop, and guests join with just their name.
What do we get at the end?
The themes from every column with their votes, and one to three actions, each with an owner and a date, on the board. You get the summary afterwards, like every session.
