not your average retrospective

S U P E R C H A R G I N G R E T R O S T O D R I V E T E A M J O Y A N D P R O D U C T I V I T Y

N O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

Andrew T Keener, MBA | CSM, CSPO E M A I L : A N D R E W T H O M A S K E E N E R M B A @ G M A I L . C O M B L O G : K E E N E R S T R AT E G Y. C O M T W I T T E R : @ K E E N E R S T R AT E G Y L I N K E D I N : H T T P S : / / W W W. L I N K E D I N . C O M / I N / A N D R E W K E E N E R

Will Anfeldt | CSM, CSPO E M A I L : W I L L . A N F E L D T @ G M A I L . C O M T W I T T E R : @ I R O N I C S I L E N C E L I N K E D I N : H T T P S : / / W W W. L I N K E D I N . C O M / I N / W I L L A N F E L D T

W H AT I S A S P R I N T R E T R O S P E C T I V E ?

• Meeting held at the end of every sprint with full scrum team

• Focus on what changes can be made to better the team’s joy and productivity

• Start doing, Stop doing, Keep Doing

• Gain a health check from the team on how the sprint went

• ARE YOUR RETROS CONSISTENT?

• HOW LONG ARE YOUR MEETINGS?

• DO YOU DO ANY TEAM BUILDING?

• ANY CREATIVE WAYS TO DRIVE ENGAGEMENT?

W H AT T Y P E O F R E T R O S D O Y O U C U R R E N T LY H AV E ?

D O E S T E A M B U I L D I N G B E L O N G I N A R E T R O ? !

T E A M B U I L D I N G

• 5 - 10 minutes in length

• Done at the start of the meeting

• Aims to increase engagement and meeting buy in

T E A M B U I L D I N G / I C E B R E A K E RT E A M B U I L D I N G

• Personal Shields

• A quick game which gives everyone a chance to learn a few non work related items about each team member

• Moderator provides a topic of conversation for each quadrant of the shield, team members fill in each quadrant

A F E W Q U I C K G A M E ST E A M B U I L D I N G / I C E B R E A K E R S

P E R S O N A L S H I E L D ST E A M B U I L D I N G

• Game focuses on the concepts of velocity and iteration/sprint planning

• Moderator (customer) provides a sample paper hat and tasks the team to make more paper hats

• The customer in this game tries to push the development team to build as many paper hats in the iteration as possible

• Expected results are that as the customer pushes for larger amounts of hats that the quality will become low

• Over time the team starts to learn what the actual velocity needed to produce high quality paper hats that meet the customers expectation

M A K I N G PA P E R H AT ST E A M B U I L D I N G / I C E B R E A K E R

N E W W AY S T O E N G A G E T H E T E A MN O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

• If left unchecked sprint retros can quickly turn into gripe sessions

• The soap box is hard to ignore when no one stops you from getting on it

• Team can get into a habit of focusing on the “What went wrong”

• Ignores potential opportunities to try new things

P I T FA L L S O F T H E T R A D I T I O N A L S P R I N T R E T R O S P E C T I V E

N O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

• Never again ask the 3 questions…

• Use games and activities as a way to super charge conversation and surface common themes

B R E A K I N G T H E S P R I N T R E T R O S P E C T I V E M O L D

N O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

• Fun and interactive ways to get the team to communicate

• out side the box activities to break up the norm

• Drive engagement through meaningful conversations within the team

U S I N G G A M E S T O S U R FA C E T H E M E SN O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

D R A W M E A S P R I N TN O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

• How it works:

• Ask team members to silently reflect on how the past sprint went. After 2 minutes ask them to start drawing pictures to reflect their feelings

• Why it works:

• Drawing pictures is always faster and can be more effective for collecting feelings. Pictures make it easier to spot patterns

D R A W M E A S P R I N TN O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

H O T- A I R B A L L O NN O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

• Ask the team members to write notes and place them into one of the following two areas:

• Fire and hot air - What helps up go higher? What are the things that push us forward?

• Forces pulling down - What are the forces that pull us down? What are the forces that slow us down?

• After the board is populated with enough items start to group them within each category to pull out themes and discuss as a team

H O T- A I R B A L L O NN O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

K N O W N I S S U E S - PA R T 1N O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

• Depending on team size split the team members down into smaller groups

• Ask each group to write down the known issues

• Group the know issues and read to the whole group

• Ask everyone to think about solutions to the known issues, write on a post it (another color than the known issues) and place it next to the known issue

• Group conversations and action item creation

K N O W N I S S U E S - PA R T 1N O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

K N O W N I S S U E S - PA R T 2N O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

• Create a table that outlines WHO / WHAT / WHEN as titles

• Ask each member to select an action item from part 1, or write down a concrete step they can commit to.

• Each committed item appears in the WHAT column

• Put the team members name next to there committed item in the WHO column

• Define WHEN the item will be done and place it in the WHEN column

K N O W N I S S U E S - PA R T 2N O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

• Focusing the discussion on a WHO/WHAT/WHEN format

• Connect each team member with clear actions they have defined and committed too

• Allows team members to be clear about their commitments and accountabilities

• Makes it clear to the whole group WHO is going to do WHAT by WHEN

K N O W N I S S U E S - W H AT I T D O E S A N D H O W I T W O R K S

N O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

H E L P F U L L I N K S

• http://tastycupcakes.org

• http://agile.dzone.com

• http://www.funretrospectives.com

U S E F U L W E B S I T E S F O R G A M E SN O T Y O U R A V E R A G E R E T R O S P E C T I V E

T H A N K Y O UAndrew T Keener, MBA | CSM, CSPO E M A I L : A N D R E W T H O M A S K E E N E R M B A @ G M A I L . C O M B L O G : K E E N E R S T R AT E G Y. C O M T W I T T E R : @ K E E N E R S T R AT E G Y L I N K E D I N : H T T P S : / / W W W. L I N K E D I N . C O M / I N / A N D R E W K E E N E R

Will Anfeldt | CSM, CSPO E M A I L : W I L L . A N F E L D T @ G M A I L . C O M T W I T T E R : @ I R O N I C S I L E N C E L I N K E D I N : H T T P S : / / W W W. L I N K E D I N . C O M / I N / W I L L A N F E L D T