What is a retrospective?

When I created this domain, I honestly wasn't sure what to talk about. It took me a few years to realize that I could just start simple and work with one thing I really shine at which is the Retrospective aka the Retro.

A retrospective is a ceremony that allows the teams to follow the Agile Manifesto and Scrum Guide by giving them a set time for inspecting and adapting on a reoccurring basis. The team will discuss usually three questions: What went well, what could we do better and what should we stop doing. Upon discussion of multiple points, the team will always commence the retro with actionable items to adapt the way they work. If a team is open and honest with each other they can usually achieve great things from a retro.

While some teams dread the retrospective, I always try to make it a fun event. One interesting piece of feedback I received was from a Product Owner (PO) who told me in the beginning they felt it was child's play and scoffed at the retros and activities I created, but after a while they'd actually grown to enjoy and look forward to attending my retros and that the entire team had fun. It took them away from the monotony of work.

While I've definitely looked online for inspiration many times, I will usually doctor them up to make them more appealing.  I use my design background to help make them visually interesting and sometimes I'll  create my own visuals if I cannot find them. Don't get me wrong, if it's not broke don't fix it does comes with the territory as well, I have used some great ideas that I have found online with success.

But in the end, teams all know it's the same three questions that are part of the retro. So, one of my goals is to try not to make it monotonous. I started retros in Trello I then discovered Mural and my creativity really started to explode!  Mural is such a great tool; I can't love it enough!!! When the pandemic hit and remote work became the standard it was an indispensable tool at my use and not just for retros, as I've facilitated full scale PI Planning in Mural as well as other virtual gatherings, but I'm going to stick to the retro for a while.

The fun retros I created originated when I had multiple teams but the same PO, and I didn't want them to become bored with the same retrospectives for both teams, so I tried to always make a different retro for each team. Then it became this challenge for myself not to use the same retro twice with my teams.

Coming up with new retros could just be about the current season or current weather or current holidays. When I found myself struggling for ideas, I'd turn to searching the internet for any interesting event that happened that day or month; boy did that help with ideas. For instance, I once created a Pulsar retro since the Pulsar was discovered that day. The possibilities are quite endless I should say. And I'm happy to say I've inspired other agile coaches to up their retros with different ideas.

One of my first retros was the Star retro that almost every agile coach knows.  

 Then came The Three Little Pigs. While this wasn't my original idea, I decided to make it visually interesting using the image search function in Mural. (Note: These retro ideas were used only for my team's fun and not for monetary gains. Usually found through the image search function in Mural. They are also extremely old and I have no way of finding the source at this time, so if you do happen to know please email me with the source so I may credit).

While neither of these are groundbreaking retros, it was the beginning of my skill set to which I would grow, so I look to them fondly and never forget them and where I started from. Do you remember your first retros? Never forget your roots!