Retromat: Retrospective Ideas Directory: 32-7-8-125-120

Emoticon Project Gauge (#32)

Help team members express their feelings about a project and address root causes early
Source: Andrew Ciccarelli

Prepare a flipchart with faces expressing various emotions such as:

shocked / surprised
nervous / stressed
unempowered / constrained
confused
happy
mad
overwhelmed

Let each team member choose how they feel about the project. This is a fun and effective way to surface problems early. You can address them in the subsequent phases.

Mad Sad Glad (#7)

Collect events when team members felt mad, sad, or glad and find the sources
Source: Agile Retrospectives

Put up three posters labeled 'mad', 'sad', and 'glad' (or >:(, :(, :) alternatively). Team members write down one event per color coded card, when they've felt that way. When the time is up have everyone post their cards to the appropriate posters. Cluster the cards on each poster. Ask the group for cluster names.
Debrief by asking:

What's standing out? What's unexpected?
What was difficult about this task? What was fun?
What patterns do you see? What do they mean for you as a team?
Suggestions on how to continue?

5 Whys (#8)

Drill down to the root cause of problems by repeatedly asking 'Why?'
Source: Agile Retrospectives

Divide the participants into small groups (<= 4 people) and give each group one of the top identified issues. Instructions for the group:

One person asks the others 'Why did that happen?' repeatedly to find the root cause or a chain of events
Record the root causes (often the answer to the 5th 'Why?')

Let the groups share their findings.

Three by Three (#125)

Build on each other's ideas to create a great action item
Source: Simon Tomes

This silent brainstorming technique helps the team come up with truly creative solutions and gives quiet people equal footing:

Everyone writes 3 sticky notes with 1 action idea each
Go around the room and pitch each idea in 15 seconds
Gather all stickies so that everyone can see them
Each team member adds their name to the sticky note that inspires them the most
Take off all ideas without a name on them

Repeat this process 2 more times. Afterwards, everyone can dot vote to determine which action(s) the team is going to implement.

My Team is Awesome (#120)

Acknowledge what's awesome about your team
Source: Jesus Mendez

Give each team member a piece of paper and ask them to write down the following text:
'My team is awesome because _______________
and that makes me feel __________________'

Everyone fills out the blanks for themselves and signs below. When everyone is finished, put up the sheets on a wall. A volunteer reads out the sheets and the team celebrates by cheering or applausing. Take some time to review and share observations. Take a picture to remind the team how awesome it feels to be part of the team.

Created by Corinna Baldauf

Corinna wished for something like Retromat during her Scrummaster years. Eventually she just built it herself in the hope that it would be useful to others, too. Any questions, suggestions or encouragement? You can email her or follow her on Twitter. If you like Retromat you might also like Corinna's blog and her summaries on Wall-Skills.com.

Co-developed by Timon Fiddike

Timon gives Scrum trainings. He mentors advanced scrum masters and advanced product owners. Human, dad, nerd, contact improv & tango dancer. He has used Retromat since 2013 and started to build new features in 2016. You can email him or follow him on Twitter. Photo © Ina Abraham.