Meetings
Starfish retrospective template
Keep doing, more of, less of, stop doing and start doing. A five-part retro for turning habits up or down.
What it is
The starfish retrospective has five areas. Keep doing holds what works as it is. More of is for things that help and deserve more time. Less of is for things that still have a place but take too much of it. Stop doing lists what to drop, and Start doing lists what to try. The two middle areas are the reason to pick it, because a habit can be turned up or down instead of only kept or dropped. This board adds a sixth frame for actions.
When to use it
- When the team has run retros for months and start and stop feel too blunt
- For a team that has worked together long enough to have habits worth adjusting
- After a process change, to decide which parts to turn up and which to turn down
How to run it
- 01
Explain More of and Less of
These two cause the most confusion. More of is something good the team does too rarely. Less of is something useful that has grown too big, like a standup that now runs 25 minutes.
- 02
Write in silence
Give everyone eight minutes to add notes to all five areas, one habit per note. Start each note with a verb.
- 03
Group across areas
Don't argue over whether a note belongs in More of or Less of. Leave it where its author put it and look for themes that cross areas.
- 04
Pick two adjustments
Choose one habit to turn up or down and one to start or stop. Put both in Actions with an owner, and check them at the next retro.
Opens a new board from this prompt:
"Starfish retro for a backend team that has run two-week sprints together for a year"
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