Sprint retrospective: How to run an effective retro

According to Albert Einstein, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." And while the mathematical genius was likely talking about quantum mechanics (whatever that is), the same concept holds true in project management. If something isn't working the way you want it to, it's crazy to just keep doing the same old thing.

But in order to improve your approach, you need to reflect on how things are going. That's where a sprint retrospective comes in. In this article, you'll learn what a sprint retrospective is, who should attend, how to run one effectively, and techniques to keep your team engaged.

What is a sprint retrospective?

A sprint retrospective is a meeting held at the end of each sprint where Agile teams reflect on what went well, what didn't, and how to improve their process for the next sprint.

In Scrum, sprints are typically two-week working sessions with specific deliverables. The retrospective is built into each sprint cycle, giving teams a regular opportunity to iterate on their process and continuously improve.

Sprint retrospective vs. sprint review meeting

Both meetings happen at the end of a sprint, but they serve different purposes:

Who attends a sprint retrospective?

Only team members who worked on tasks during the sprint should attend. A good rule of thumb: if they attend daily stand-ups, they should be in the retrospective.

Typical attendees include:

• Scrum master: Facilitates the meeting and keeps the discussion on track

• Team members: Developers, designers, and others who contributed to the sprint

• Product owner: Sometimes attends, depending on team preference

Stakeholders and managers typically don't attend. Keeping the meeting limited to the core team helps people feel comfortable sharing honest feedback about what went wrong.

While cross-functional stakeholders and managers don't attend sprint retrospectives, they do attend sprint review meetings.

Who needs a sprint retrospective?

Any team using Scrum or Agile should conduct a retrospective at the end of each sprint. But you don't have to work in sprints to benefit from retrospectives.

Teams that benefit from retrospectives include:

• Scrum teams: Hold a retro at the end of every sprint

• Product and engineering teams: Reflect after releases or major milestones

• Any project team: Run a retro after completing a project or achieving a goal

When to hold a sprint retrospective

A sprint retrospective happens at the end of each sprint, right after the sprint review and before planning for the next sprint. This timing is intentional: the team has fresh context from the work they just completed.

Most Scrum teams hold retrospectives at the end of every sprint, whether that's weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Regular retrospectives help your team build a habit of continuous improvement and ensure learnings don't get lost between sprints.

How long should your retrospective be? Use this guideline based on sprint length:

Keep in mind that these are starting points. You may need to adjust based on your team size, sprint complexity, or specific issues that need more discussion time.

Benefits of a sprint retrospective meeting

Continuous improvement over time is a core principle of the Scrum framework. That's why a retrospective is built into each sprint, so the Scrum team always has an opportunity to apply process improvement learnings into the next sprint cycle.

A sprint retrospective helps your team accomplish the following:

• Celebrate (and keep doing) what's going well. For example, you could use a sprint retrospective to acknowledge and support your team's communication when tasks took longer than expected. Positive feedback keeps your team engaged, promotes teamwork, and helps reduce the negative effects of stress.

• Identify areas for improvement. For example, your team could suggest changing how they estimate the time each task will take to complete. Or, you might want to improve your backlog refinement process to ensure similar tasks are batched together.

• Create an action plan to implement improvements. During a sprint retrospective, your team decides on concrete action items to carry over into the upcoming sprint. Creating action items ensures that you and your team are accountable for implementing improvements to the sprint planning process.

Sprint retrospective meeting agenda

There isn't one way to run a sprint retrospective meeting. Over time, you'll learn what works best for your team and tailor your agenda accordingly. Creating a standard agenda template makes it easy to share with your team and collect feedback in advance.

But to start with, make sure your agenda covers these basic steps:

1. Set the goal of the meeting

Establishing the goal of your sprint retrospective up front helps your team focus on the task at hand. When you set a goal, you ensure everyone is working towards the same thing.

For example, your team's goal may focus on giving candid, constructive feedback to improve the sprint planning process, rather than placing blame for what went wrong.

2. Collect team feedback

Your team is the best source of information to improve your sprint process. They're handling the day-to-day work, so their input is key to ensuring your sprint runs smoothly.

Send each team member these questions 1-2 days before your sprint retrospective meeting:

• What went well during the last sprint?

• What didn't go well?

• What did we learn?

• What should we do differently next time?

To make things simple, share these questions alongside your meeting agenda. And if you use a project management tool like Asana, you can share your agenda and gather feedback all in one place with a sprint retrospective template.

Some Scrum teams use an even simpler approach called the start-stop-continue method. With this approach, each team member identifies what the team should start, stop, and continue doing.

3. Draw insights

Now that you've gathered data from your team asynchronously, you can identify patterns and common threads during the retrospective meeting itself. These can be pain points that multiple team members share, key learnings to carry over into future sprints, or practices that are working well.

If you can, share your screen or collaborate on a shared document with your entire team during the retrospective. That way, people can see you're taking notes and seriously considering each person's feedback.

Here's an example of how you could visualize and collect feedback during your meeting. This Kanban board includes a meeting agenda, plus columns to document questions and different categories of feedback.

4. Set action items

Now it's time to create action items to address common pain points. Action items are concrete next steps with clear owners and deadlines, so you and your team are accountable for completing them.

For example, if multiple team members report not having sufficient information to complete tasks, you could create an action item to gather more context from stakeholders during sprint backlog refinement.

5. Close the meeting

Set aside a few minutes at the end of your sprint retrospective to wrap up the meeting. Briefly summarize the meeting, thank everyone for their participation, and identify how you'll share action items with the group.

Formally closing your retrospective demonstrates that you value your team's time and contributions. Plus, it ensures that everyone is on the same page going forward.

Sprint retrospective techniques to keep your team engaged

Running the same retrospective format every sprint can lead to disengagement. Mixing up your approach keeps conversations fresh and encourages different perspectives.

Start-stop-continue

This simple format asks team members to identify what the team should start doing, stop doing, and continue doing. It's straightforward and works well for teams new to retrospectives or when you're short on time.

The 4Ls: Liked, learned, lacked, longed for

Team members share what they liked about the sprint, what they learned, what they felt was lacking, and what they longed for. This format encourages both positive reflection and constructive feedback.

Sailboat retrospective

Visualize your team as a sailboat. The wind represents what's pushing you forward, anchors represent what's holding you back, rocks represent risks ahead, and the island represents your goals. This metaphor-based approach can spark creative thinking.

Mad, sad, glad

Team members categorize their experiences into three emotional buckets. This format is especially useful for surfacing team morale issues and understanding how people feel about the work.

Tips for remote and hybrid teams

If your team works remotely or in a hybrid setup, consider these adjustments:

• Use collaborative digital whiteboards so everyone can contribute simultaneously

• Build in extra time for discussion since virtual communication can take longer

• Enable cameras when possible to read facial expressions and body language

• Consider asynchronous input gathering before the meeting, so quieter team members can contribute thoughtfully

Common pitfalls of sprint retrospectives, plus solutions

Sprint retrospective meetings can be difficult to navigate, especially if it's your first time planning one. Here are some common pitfalls to watch out for, plus solutions to stop them in their tracks.

Running out of time

There's a lot to cover during agile retrospectives, so it's common for these meetings to run over their allotted time. Here's how to keep your retrospective on track:

• Create and share an agenda in advance. Your agenda should include a list of topics to discuss, along with the allotted time for each. Sharing your agenda in advance helps team members arrive prepared and ready to contribute.

• Consider how long your meeting should last. Set aside enough time to complete everything on your agenda. As a general rule, plan for 45 minutes per sprint. Be sure to build in short breaks every 30 minutes for longer sessions, especially if you're meeting virtually. Research shows that agile teams conducting retrospectives after every sprint catch and fix issues 70% faster than teams doing traditional post-project reviews.

Lack of engagement

Sharing feedback is hard, especially if team members don't feel comfortable sharing pain points or feel like their input isn't valued. Here are some ways to boost engagement:

• Share prompts in advance so team members can come prepared with their thoughts. Instead of posing difficult questions for the first time during your meeting, send out a list of prompts at least a few days in advance.

• Break the ice. Start with an icebreaker question to set a fun and collaborative tone. Fan favorites include "Is a hot dog a sandwich?" and "If you had to email the CEO an emoji right now, what would it be?"

• Show gratitude. When team members speak up, listen actively, and write down their input to show it's valued. Sincerely thank your team members for their contributions, especially if their feedback is constructive.

Unclear next steps

Picture this: You spend hours giving and collecting constructive feedback, close out your retrospective meeting, and then... nothing happens. No follow-up, no action items, nothing has changed.

To prevent that painful scenario, make sure to document and follow through on insights gathered during your sprint retrospective:

• Take notes and, if possible, share your screen. The Scrum master or product manager should take notes during the meeting. Meeting notes are essential for remembering important points and action items to follow up on.

• Follow up with action items. Great action items have a clear owner, a deadline, and a description that starts with a verb. For example, "Gather task context from stakeholders before backlog refinement" is much clearer than just "More task context."

• Make information accessible. Instead of passing along documents and emails that can easily get lost, organize your sprint retrospective with a project management tool like Asana. That way, you can circulate your meeting agenda, take real-time notes, and assign action items all in one place.

Run better retrospectives with Asana

Sprint retrospectives turn every sprint into a learning opportunity. By reflecting on what worked, identifying areas for improvement, and setting clear action items, your team delivers better work over time.

With Asana, you can organize your retrospective agenda, gather feedback, and track action items all in one place. Get started today to run more effective retrospectives and keep your team improving sprint after sprint.

Frequently asked questions about sprint retrospectives