Are you looking for cool retrospective techniques to enhance your retrospective? - Then you’ve come to the right place!\

I have put together more than 20 retrospective techniques for you here, which you can get a first impression of and use directly for yourself if you are interested.

In addition to the classics such as the Mad Sad Glad retro technique or the 4 Ls retrospective technique, I have also included new retrospective techniques that you have certainly not yet heard of. These fun retrospective techniques include, for example, the Tetris retro, the five Agile values retro or the retrospective techniques of the four seasons.

Long story short: If you need inspiration for new retrospective techniques, you’re sure to find it here.

What makes a retrospective successful?

Of course, in addition to retrospective techniques, there are other factors that can help make your next retrospective a success. As a company that helps thousands of teams to conduct better retrospectives, we have now gained insights into well over 50,000 retrospectives and have been able to identify commonalities in retrospectives that were rated as particularly successful by the participants.

The most influential factors are:

1. The right day of the week: Friday is the most promising day of the week for a retrospective.
2. The ideal duration: 30 to 60 minutes is ideal for a retro.
   Basically, the longer the retro, the worse the result.
3. The optimum team size: the smaller the team, the greater the commitment and success.
4. The best retro routine: 7-14 day intervals of retros lead to the best results.

Do you want to understand in more detail what characterizes the most successful retrospectives? Take a look at our analysis: Analysis of 30k retrospectives

We have also summarized other useful resources that improve working with Retrospective techniques:

• An entry guide for retrospectives.
• How to define valuable “measures”.
• Our full retrospective agenda.
• “Psychological safety” for agile teams.
• The best retro check-ins for any situation.

And now let’s start with the fun retrospective techniques…

9 Fun retrospective techniques - the classics

Let’s start with the “best” retro techniques from the agile world - or at least the 9 most common:

The “What Went Well” retrospective is the most used retro technique in our tool. It is simple and effective:

The “Mad Sad Glad” retrospective technique has a similar pattern, but places more emphasis on considering the emotions of the individual team members.

The “Start Stop Keep” retrospective technique is also known as the “Start Stop Continue” retrospective. I highly recommend making it a “Keep Stop Start” retro (pay attention to the order). This is how you start the retro with something positive. This has proven to be a good start:

The 4 L’s stand for “Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for”.
Rumor has it that people disagree on whether it’s called the 4L retrospective or the 4L’s retrospective:

The sailboat retrospective technique is one of the most popular symbolic retrospective techniques out there. I suppose it’s because of the adventure that comes with a boat trip:

DAKI stands for “Drop Add Keep Improve”. A popular retro, which, along with the KALM retro (Keep, Add, Less, More), represents a simple acronym.
(Want to take a look at its twin, the KALM Retro? The KALM Retro with examples )

A retro technique based on a fable. Here, the three little pigs build different shelters to protect themselves from the evil wolf. How stable are your performances?

With its 5 questions, the starfish retro technique tends to take a little longer than other retrospective formats. It is ideal for small teams:

An agile retrospective technique that focuses entirely on appreciation:

These were the most popular retro techniques and samples from the agile world. But who always wants to hold the same retro?
Therefore, here are some more retrospectives that you certainly don’t know. The “Echometer Originals”:

What used to be cartoons are now MEMEs. And with the birth of MEMEs, MEME faces were also born:

Not happy with your team’s velocity? Then head to the race track and see what you can get out of it. This time it’s both a “futurespective” and a retrospective:

Are you longing for a level-up? Then you could look at everything more like a game: With each level (sprint), things get more difficult. But the character (our team) also develops its strengths in order to master the challenges:

Still missing a puzzle piece for success? Tetris is a challenging arcade game with the aim of puzzling under pressure, so to speak. Sounds similar to work? It kind of is. The corresponding retrospective technique:

Echometer Originals

Work-Life Balance Retrospectives Samples

Hard work is not everything. This is exactly what you can express with his retrospective techniques.
How about a relaxed round around the campfire or an escape room as a team-building activity?

You can relax around the campfire and let your mind wander.
But a fire in the office is not a good idea! But that’s exactly why we developed the Campfire Retrospective:

Sometimes work is like a theater. There is so much drama! But what role did we play in it?

Escape Rooms are a popular team-building measure for a reason. They have just the right balance of “pressure” and “fun.”
So if the team feels as if it is somehow stuck, it is worth breaking out of its own situation. Just like in an escape game.

Fun retrospective technique #17

17. The surfer retro 🏄🏽‍♀️ 🌊

When you think of surfing, you quickly think of Hawaii, sun and flow.
But did you know that mankind’s greatest achievements have all happened in a state of flow? Time to retrace it:

How can you ensure that your work becomes a masterpiece? Let’s just ask one of the greatest artists of our time:

Echometer Originals

A Retrospective For Every Season!

Spring, summer, fall, winter. There are not only the right clothes for different seasons and weather, but also the right retrospective techniques:

A new season is dawning and definitely one of the better ones. The days are getting longer and you can slowly start leaving your jacket at home. In the best case scenario, your team will blossom like the plants outside the windows. - Find out with these retro questions:

At its best, a sprint feels like what you imagine summer to be like. There’s a positive vibe, the trees are blooming magnificently, everything is working smoothly. Nevertheless, there are some things that can make us sweat:

After summer inevitably comes autumn. A time of change, but also of new beginnings and gratitude. It’s best to make sure you’re prepared for all eventualities early on.

Winter can be a long, hard and cold time. Or it can be a time of coziness and winter sports. Thus, it offers a lot of potential for creative questions that help you reflect on your agile sprint.

Echometer Originals

How is your team doing?
Find out with Health-Check Retros!

One of the most important indicators of good performance in a team is team satisfaction. This is precisely why it makes sense to regularly check well-being in addition to project progress:

Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a scale.

• Speed: We get stuff done really quickly. No waiting, no delays.
• Tech Quality: We’re proud of the quality of our code! It is clean, easy to read, and has great test coverage.
• Learning: We’re learning lots of interesting stuff all the time!
• Mission: We know exactly why we are here, and we are really excited about it.
• Other items (customizable)

The agile values and principles belong to the basics of a Scrum course. Only when you live up to them, you can reach higher agile maturity levels reach. This health check helps you to reflect on the 5 agile Scrum values from a different perspective with your team and make them measurable - see below for an insight.

Note: This retrospective format asks for agreement with the given Health Check items on a scale.

• Courage: We value people showing courage.
• Respect: We value each other’s ideas, even when disagreeing.
• Commitment: Every team member is committed to follow through on what they have promised.
• Focus: We don’t allow ourselves to be distracted from reaching the sprint goal.
• Openness: We are open to constructive feedback and grow from it.

Echometer Originals

Something different for a change? - Crazy retro templates!

Not everything has to be taken seriously:

What would you do in the event of an alien invasion? Probably it will never happen, but it is almost certain that other unforeseen things will happen. With this you can prepare your team top.

Clear the ring for the most varied retro, which also takes place in a tent:

Fun retrospective techniques - Conclusion

With all these retrospective techniques, you’re sure to find the right one for your next retro. If not, we have even more in our tool.

Retrospective Templates: Some Final Notes

If you still have retrospective examples or ideas for an agile retrospective template or would like to give us feedback… just write to us.

And if you’re looking for a free online retro board software for retrospectives, you may have seen that Echometer is just that. Have fun trying out the different retro templates in our tool 😄