Retro format 11 of 27
Three Little Pigs retrospective
Houses of straw (fragile), sticks (could be stronger) and bricks (solid).
- 45–57 min
- 2 to 20 people
- Great remote
Good for
Talking about the health of systems, tests and processes. Good before a big launch or after an outage.
Facilitator tip
Keep it about systems and processes, never people's work. Straw is a label for risk, not for quality.
The Three Little Pigs board, drawn out.
3 areas: Straw (could fall over), Sticks (needs work), Bricks (solid). Draw the picture on your whiteboard before the retro. Here's what a software team might put in each.
1Straw (could fall over)
The cron job only Sam understands
2Sticks (needs work)
Deploy script: works, no tests
3Bricks (solid)
Payments service: tested, alerts tuned
How to run a Three Little Pigs retrospective.
About 57 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
8 min
Everyone sorts parts of the system and the process into straw, sticks and bricks.
- 3
Read out
10 min
Start with bricks, then sticks, then straw.
- 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 the straw
14 min
What would the wolf blow down first? What would it take to turn one straw house into sticks?
- 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.
Prompts to put on the board.
Read one out when the writing stalls, or paste them next to the columns.
- Which service, script or process would fall over first under pressure?
- What works but only because one person knows how?
- What is solid that we can rely on and stop worrying about?
Your Three Little Pigs 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.
Length
- 0:00–0:05Check in · 5 min
- 0:05–0:13Write silently · 8 min
- 0:13–0:23Read out · 10 min
- 0:23–0:28Group and dot-vote · 5 min
- 0:28–0:42Discuss the straw · 14 min
- 0:42–0:52Agree action items · 10 min
- 0:52–0:57Close · 5 min
Payments team Sprint 14 retro: Three Little Pigs
Length: 57 min
Houses of straw (fragile), sticks (could be stronger) and bricks (solid). Talking about the health of systems, tests and processes. Good before a big launch or after an outage.
Agenda
| Time | Step | Min |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:05 | Check in | 5 |
| 0:05–0:13 | Write silently | 8 |
| 0:13–0:23 | Read out | 10 |
| 0:23–0:28 | Group and dot-vote | 5 |
| 0:28–0:42 | Discuss the straw | 14 |
| 0:42–0:52 | Agree action items | 10 |
| 0:52–0:57 | 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 (8 min). Everyone sorts parts of the system and the process into straw, sticks and bricks.
- Read out (10 min). Start with bricks, then sticks, then straw.
- 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 the straw (14 min). What would the wolf blow down first? What would it take to turn one straw house into sticks?
- 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
- Straw (could fall over)
- Sticks (needs work)
- Bricks (solid)
Prompts
- Which service, script or process would fall over first under pressure?
- What works but only because one person knows how?
- What is solid that we can rely on and stop worrying about?
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.
- 16
Futurespective
- 45–60 min
- 2 to 20
- Great remote
- 04
Sailboat
- 45–60 min
- 2 to 20
- Great remote
- 09
Hot Air Balloon
- 45–57 min
- 2 to 20
- Great remote
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.
Three Little Pigs retrospective questions
What is a Three Little Pigs retrospective?
Houses of straw (fragile), sticks (could be stronger) and bricks (solid). Talking about the health of systems, tests and processes. Good before a big launch or after an outage.
How long does a Three Little Pigs retro take?
45 minutes at the shortest, and about 57 minutes as written here. The agenda builder on this page stretches or squeezes each step to fit your slot.
Can you run Three Little Pigs 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 Three Little Pigs board?
3 areas: Straw (could fall over), Sticks (needs work), Bricks (solid). For example, from a software team: Straw (could fall over): “The cron job only Sam understands”; Sticks (needs work): “Deploy script: works, no tests”; Bricks (solid): “Payments service: tested, alerts tuned”.
What team size is Three Little Pigs for?
2 to 20 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 Three Little Pigs?
Futurespective, Sailboat, Hot Air Balloon. They suit similar sprints from a different angle. Rotate formats every two to four sprints so the retro doesn't go stale.