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27 formats, free agendas

Retrospective gamesyour team won't dread.

27 formats for software teams, each with a board, prompts and a timed agenda you can paste into your doc. Filter by what you need, or let the dice pick.

Find a format No sign-up. Copy as Markdown or formatted text.
SailboatStarfishHot Air Balloon4LsMad Sad Glad

What do you need from this retro?

Time you have (minutes)

Team size

Can't decide? Let the dice pick from the 27 that fit.

27 of 27 formats

Which retro to run, by situation.

Six common sprints and the three formats we'd reach for first.

Retrospective questions that get past “it was fine”.

  • About the work

    • What took longer than we expected, and why?
    • Where did work wait: on review, on QA, on another team, on a decision?
    • Which bug or incident could we have caught earlier?
    • What did we ship that we're proud of?

  • About how we work

    • Which meeting could have been a message?
    • Did we change scope mid-sprint? Who decided, and how did we hear?
    • Did everyone know the sprint goal on day three?
    • What would you change if you ran this team for a week?

  • About the team

    • Who helped you this sprint?
    • Did anyone work late to hit the goal? Why?
    • Is anyone carrying knowledge nobody else has?
    • Do you feel safe saying the sprint went badly?

  • About next sprint

    • What one experiment should we try?
    • Who's out next sprint, and what does that change?
    • What risk can we see now that we'd rather deal with early?
    • What should we stop committing to?

Three habits that matter more than the format.

  1. 1

    Rotate formats, keep the frame

    Change the middle every two to four sprints so people think instead of reciting. Keep the frame: check in, review last actions, gather, decide, close. Rotate the facilitator too; a developer running the retro hears things a manager never will.

  2. 2

    Follow up on action items

    Retros die when actions don't happen. One to three actions, each with one owner and a due date, as real tickets in the sprint. Open the next retro by reviewing them. If one keeps rolling over, drop it on purpose or make it smaller.

  3. 3

    Keep it safe

    Say up front that the retro is about the system, not people. Write silently before talking, vote anonymously on sensitive topics, and keep managers from outside the team out unless the team invites them. What's said stays in the room unless the team agrees to share it.

Running a retro online without it going quiet.

  • Silent writing firstFive quiet minutes on the board before anyone talks. The quiet people write as much as the loud ones.
  • Cameras optionalPeople think better when they aren't watching themselves. Ask for cameras in the read-out, not the writing.
  • Anonymous dot-votingThree votes each, hidden until everyone has voted, so nobody follows the lead's dots.
  • Call on people by nameGo round in the read-out so nobody has to fight for airtime. Across time zones, gather async the day before.

Don't run a retro the week half the team is out.

A retro with two of five people missing hears only one side of the sprint, and the actions have no owners. Before you book it, look at who's out on the last day of the sprint. On this board, Sprint 2 ends the same week Ana is on a ski trip: move the retro to the Monday after, or run it async in the doc.

Sprints next to time off, liveOpen full screen
  • Each sprint is a band across the team
  • See who's out on retro day before you book it
  • Holidays and sick days on the same rows
  • Drag time off and watch the sprint change

Planning the next sprint after the retro? The sprint planning template and the sprint capacity calculator count everyone's days off for you. If the retro was about an incident, use the postmortem template instead.

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Questions

What are retrospective games?

Structured exercises for a sprint retrospective, like Sailboat, Mad Sad Glad or Start Stop Continue. Each gives the team a different way to look back at the sprint, so the retro doesn't turn into the same conversation every two weeks.

What is the best retrospective format?

There isn't one. Start Stop Continue or Went well, Didn't go well, Try next work for most normal sprints. After a hard sprint, try Mad Sad Glad or Sailboat. For a recurring problem, use Five Whys or Fishbone. After a launch, try 4Ls or an appreciation round.

What is a Start Stop Continue retrospective?

A retro with three columns: what the team should start doing, stop doing and continue doing. Everyone writes notes silently, reads them out, votes on the top topics and turns them into one to three action items. It takes 30 to 60 minutes.

How do you run a retrospective online?

Use a shared whiteboard or a doc with the format's columns, give everyone a few minutes of silent writing, and use anonymous voting. Keep cameras optional, timebox each step, and pick formats marked great for remote, like Start Stop Continue, Sailboat, Lean Coffee or Team radar.

How do you make retrospectives fun?

Change the format every few sprints, use a picture like Sailboat or Three Little Pigs, end a big release with Sprint Oscars, and start with a quick appreciation round. The most important part is that actions from the last retro actually happen, so people see the point.

How often should you change the retro format?

Every two to four sprints, or whenever the retro feels repetitive. Keep the same frame each time (check in, review last actions, gather, decide, close) and swap only the middle, so the team knows what to expect.