Retro format 05 of 27

Starfish retrospective

Five areas: keep doing, more of, less of, stop doing and start doing.

45–60 min
2 to 10 people
Great remote

Build the agenda See the board

Good for

A team that is mostly fine and wants to tune things. It gives more nuance than Start Stop Continue.

Facilitator tip

Five areas is a lot for three people. With a small team, merge More of and Less of into one column.

The Starfish board, drawn out.

5 areas: Keep doing, More of, Less of, Stop doing, Start doing. Draw the picture on your whiteboard before the retro. Here's what a software team might put in each.

1Keep doing
Async standup in Slack
2More of
Pairing on gnarly bugs
3Less of
Switching between two projects a day
4Stop doing
Hotfixes without a ticket
5Start doing
An ADR for every big decision

How to run a Starfish retrospective.

About 60 minutes as written. Change the length in the agenda builder below and every step scales with it.

1
Check in
5 min
Say why you're here and that the retro is about the system, not people. Go through last retro's action items: done, in progress, or dropped on purpose.
2
Write silently
10 min
Everyone adds notes to the five areas.
3
Read out
12 min
Go around the star, one area at a time.
4
Group and dot-vote
5 min
Cluster notes that say the same thing and name each cluster. Everyone gets three votes. Sort by votes.
5
Discuss
13 min
Focus on More of and Less of first: they are the easiest changes to make.
6
Agree action items
10 min
Pick one to three actions from the top topics. Each gets one owner and a due date, and goes into the next sprint's backlog, not only the retro notes.
7
Close
5 min
Read the actions and owners back. Ask everyone to rate the retro 1 to 5 (return on time invested) and change one thing next time if the scores are low.

Run these steps with a timer that floats over your screen share

Prompts to put on the board.

Read one out when the writing stalls, or paste them next to the columns.

What should we keep doing exactly as we do it now?
What should we do more of: pairing, writing ADRs, demoing to users?
What should we do less of: context switching, ad-hoc requests, long standups?
What should we stop doing entirely?
What should we try for the first time?

Your Starfish agenda, timed to your slot.

Fill in the team and the time. Copy the agenda into Confluence, Notion or Google Docs as formatted text, or grab the Markdown.

TeamSprintDateStarts atFacilitator

Length

0:00–0:05Check in · 5 min
0:05–0:15Write silently · 10 min
0:15–0:27Read out · 12 min
0:27–0:32Group and dot-vote · 5 min
0:32–0:45Discuss · 13 min
0:45–0:55Agree action items · 10 min
0:55–1:00Close · 5 min

Starfish retro agenda

Payments team Sprint 14 retro: Starfish

Length: 60 min

Five areas: keep doing, more of, less of, stop doing and start doing. A team that is mostly fine and wants to tune things. It gives more nuance than Start Stop Continue.

Agenda

Time	Step	Min
0:00–0:05	Check in	5
0:05–0:15	Write silently	10
0:15–0:27	Read out	12
0:27–0:32	Group and dot-vote	5
0:32–0:45	Discuss	13
0:45–0:55	Agree action items	10
0:55–1:00	Close	5

How to run each step

Check in (5 min). Say why you're here and that the retro is about the system, not people. Go through last retro's action items: done, in progress, or dropped on purpose.
Write silently (10 min). Everyone adds notes to the five areas.
Read out (12 min). Go around the star, one area at a time.
Group and dot-vote (5 min). Cluster notes that say the same thing and name each cluster. Everyone gets three votes. Sort by votes.
Discuss (13 min). Focus on More of and Less of first: they are the easiest changes to make.
Agree action items (10 min). Pick one to three actions from the top topics. Each gets one owner and a due date, and goes into the next sprint's backlog, not only the retro notes.
Close (5 min). Read the actions and owners back. Ask everyone to rate the retro 1 to 5 (return on time invested) and change one thing next time if the scores are low.

Board

Keep doing
More of
Less of
Stop doing
Start doing

Prompts

What should we keep doing exactly as we do it now?
What should we do more of: pairing, writing ADRs, demoing to users?
What should we do less of: context switching, ad-hoc requests, long standups?
What should we stop doing entirely?
What should we try for the first time?

Last retro's action items

Action	Owner	Status

Action items

Action	Owner	Due

Copy pastes as formatted text into Google Docs, Notion or Confluence. Markdown is for GitHub, Jira or Slack.

Try next, when this one gets stale.

All 27 retrospective games

Book the retro on a day the whole team is in.

A retro with two people out hears half the sprint, and its actions have no owners. Forgot shows sprints, holidays and time off on one board, so you can see who's out on retro day before you send the invite.

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Starfish retrospective questions

What is a Starfish retrospective?

Five areas: keep doing, more of, less of, stop doing and start doing. A team that is mostly fine and wants to tune things. It gives more nuance than Start Stop Continue.

How long does a Starfish retro take?

45 minutes at the shortest, and about 60 minutes as written here. The agenda builder on this page stretches or squeezes each step to fit your slot.

Can you run Starfish remotely?

Yes, it works well on a video call. Set up the board on a shared whiteboard before the call, give everyone silent writing time with cameras optional, and use anonymous dot-voting.

What goes on a Starfish board?

5 areas: Keep doing, More of, Less of, Stop doing, Start doing. For example, from a software team: Keep doing: “Async standup in Slack”; More of: “Pairing on gnarly bugs”; Less of: “Switching between two projects a day”; Stop doing: “Hotfixes without a ticket”; Start doing: “An ADR for every big decision”.

What team size is Starfish for?

2 to 10 people. With more people, split into groups for the writing and discussion, then bring the top topics back together.

What can I run instead of Starfish?

Sailboat, Start Stop Continue, KALM. They suit similar sprints from a different angle. Rotate formats every two to four sprints so the retro doesn't go stale.