5 Ideas for Sprint Retrospectives Your Team Will Love

As a psychologist and Scrum Master, I probably have an unusual view of Sprint Retrospective ideas. I have a slightly stronger focus on the “soft” side of continuous improvement. You could also talk about the agile mindset.

Especially against this background, I would like to recommend some Sprint Retrospective ideas to you today - and rather advise against other Retro Board ideas. Of course, this is always just my own opinion, based on my personal experiences. And don’t worry: I naturally have primarily in mind that your team will ultimately say that a) it was an extraordinarily good agile retrospective (regardless of whether you work according to Scrum, Kanban or Waterfall) and b) that you will have defined good measures (see also: 10 tips for good retrospective measures ).

9 Sprint Retrospective Ideas Evaluated: 5 Winners

In the following table, I will now give you an overview of 9 different ideas for sprint retrospectives, including my personal assessment of how well these retrospective ideas actually work in practice. As you will see, the following sprint retrospective ideas are particularly recommended:

• Battery Retrospective
• Sailboat Retrospective
• Team Morale Health Check Retro
• News magazine Retro

Sprint retrospective idea	Rating	Context
”What went well” Retro	❌ Bad	In a social group, it is often difficult to openly say what is currently going “badly” - I would not recommend this idea.
“4L Loved Learned Longed” Retro	👍 Medium	The focus on “learning” and very diverse questions are positive, but there are better retro ideas.
”Mad Sad Glad” Retro	❌ Bad	Again: Do you want to tell your manager to their face what makes you “sad” and “mad”? Many teams find this difficult - I wouldn’t recommend the idea.
Sailboat Retro	✅ Good	This metaphor makes the retro playful and it’s psychologically easy to communicate challenges - good retro format!
Team Morale Health Check Retro	✅🚀 Very good	Diverse, important questions, where agreement is asked for anonymously - a highly recommended format!
Retro battery	✅🚀 Very good	A novel retrospective idea with a metaphor that everyone immediately understands and that stimulates creativity - a highly recommended retro format!
Starfish Retrospective	👍 Medium	A nice visual metaphor, but the questions themselves are too direct for my taste, similar to other criticized retro formats.
Mario Kart retrospective	✅ Good	A novel, playful theme for a retrospective: great for teams who like such nerdy games.
News magazine Retro	✅ Good	A great metaphor where the questions will put a smile on your team members’ faces.

I hope that the context is sufficient to justify my agreement or disagreement. Before we look at the sprint retro ideas, let’s briefly define together what a retrospective is.

What is a Sprint Retrospective: Definition

To keep it short: At its core, the retrospective is about reflection. Can you imagine an elite team that doesn’t regularly reflect on how it can work better together? In the long term, that would be about as successful as a car company that stops focusing on customer needs.

At the end of the typically 2-week Scrum Sprint, you have a 30-90 minute appointment with the entire team to answer the questions: What is going well right now, and what can we do better? Which measures will we try out in the next sprint? However, it is not insignificant how exactly these questions are asked - which brings us to the best Sprint Retrospective ideas.

The agile Sprint Retro can be moderated by the Scrum Master, Agile Coach, but in practice it is also often moderated by the Engineering Manager, Product Owner or Team Lead (more on: Agile Retrospective). The moderator should pay attention to the 5 phases of a retrospective - although I would recommend organizing the retrospective according to 6 phases (see also: The Double-Diamond Model - 5 Phases of a Retrospective Are Not Enough ). Let’s finally get started with the presentation of the specific questions from the 9 ideas for sprint retrospectives.

The classic retrospective questions are asked - not particularly creative, but some Scrum teams like it simple (more on: Retrospective in Scrum).

The 4 L’s stand for “Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for”. I like the focus on learning, which is why I don’t think the format is bad.

The “Mad Sad Glad” Retrospective idea uses different emotions as a basis for the questions. If you ask me, I wouldn’t recommend it - I rarely experience sadness or madness during a Scrum sprint…

The Sailboat Retrospective idea is one of the classics that I can recommend: Everyone will understand the format immediately. However, some teams may find it “childish” - so you should make sure that it suits your agile team.

Maybe your team rarely has anything to complain about - but have you ever really gone into the details? The Morale Health Check Retrospective gives your team 6 statements, and each team member anonymously votes on how much they agree with them. A few interesting insights are guaranteed here.

You have to charge your cell phone every day, but what about your personal battery? Motivation, satisfaction, etc.? In my experience, this metaphor is very well received in teams - the following 4 Sprint Retrospective questions will guide you.

The Starfish Sprint Retrospective uses the visual structure of a starfish to ask five different questions. Experience has shown that one or two fields often remain quite empty, which is why I find this format only mediocre.

Many people have played Mario Kart - not just in their childhood. Especially for software development teams that include one or two nerds, this retrospective idea can be a good way to inject a little more life into the retrospective.

Many people read or listen to the news every day, which is why everyone understands this retrospective idea: If a journalist were to write about your situation, how would the story be presented? Here, too, I have often experienced how a lively discussion arises.

Bonus tip: Interactive remote retrospective games

Does your team conduct hybrid, remote or virtual retrospectives? Then take a look at this 1-minute video in which I give you a tip on how to increase the retro engagement of your employees guaranteed!

Play

Conclusion - The best sprint retrospective ideas

So, I hope one of the ideas for sprint retrospectives has proven to be convincing. Especially if teams have had little variety in retrospectives so far, these formats should give your retros a positive boost.

If you are interested in even more retrospective templates, then take a look at our corresponding blog post: 54 Retrospective templates for successful agile teams . If this list is too long for you, I have another article that is shorter: My 7 favorite retrospective templates .

FAQ - Questions about Sprint Retrospective ideas

If you had to recommend one sprint retrospective idea, what would it be?

If I really had to choose just one retrospective idea, then I would recommend the battery retrospective. It’s an easy format that’s easy to understand and can be repeated practically endlessly.

What are typical mistakes when moderating agile sprint retrospectives?

A typical mistake is to believe that your team members will actively report. Some may not yet feel so psychologically safe, others may still have their heads elsewhere. As a moderator, you definitely have the right and the responsibility to regularly go around and ask each individual: “What do YOU say about this topic?”

If you could only give one tip for retrospectives, what would it be?

Good question - if I could only give one tip for your Sprint Retrospective, I would say the following: Focus on deriving good measures! If you somehow manage - whether in 10 or in 90 minutes - to derive ONE good measure that makes your next sprint a little better - then you have officially had an above-average retrospective!