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Retromat.org – by Corinna Baldauf
Plan-ID:
Replaced by JS
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Set the stage

What kind of X? (#140)

Participants give a metaphor for the iteration
Source: Unknown via Corinna Baldauf
Start by asking "If this iteration was an X, what kind of X would it be?" This question has endless variations from "If the iteration was a animal, what animal would it be?" over cocktails and furniture to plants and "If the iteration was a car, what car would it be?"

Ask everybody to write down their answer on a sticky note. Go around the team, everybody reads out their note and posts it on a board. Briefly discuss the answers. After all it's a difference if the iteration were "a BMW, but the brakes don't work" or a "red 2004 Toyota Prius". What does it mean to the people who wrote it down?
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Gather data

Agile Self-Assessment (#35)

Assess where you are standing with a checklist
Source: Corinna Baldauf
Print out a checklist that appeals to you, e.g.:Go through them in the team and discuss where you stand and if you're on the right track.
This is a good activity after an iteration without major events.
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Generate insights

Pessimize (#74)

If we had ruined the last iteration what would we have done?
Source: Judith Andresen
You start the activity by asking: 'If we had completely ruined last iteration what would we have done?' Record the answers on a flip chart. Next question: 'What would be the opposite of that?' Record it on another flip chart. Now ask participants to comment the items on the 'Opposite'-chart by posting sticky notes answering 'What keeps us from doing this?'. Hand out different colored sticky notes to comment on the comments, asking 'Why is it like this?'.
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Decide what to do

Dot Voting - Keep, Drop, Add (#38)

Brainstorm what behaviors to keep, drop & add and pick the top initiatives
Source: Agile Retrospectives
Divide a flip chart into boxes headed with 'Keep', 'Drop' and 'Add'. Ask your participants to write concrete proposals for each category - 1 idea per index card. Let them write in silence for a few minutes. Let everyone read out their notes and post them to the appropriate category. Lead a short discussion on what the top 20% beneficial ideas are. Vote on it by distributing dots or X's with a marker, e.g. 1, 2, and 3 dots for each person to distribute. The top 2 or 3 become your action items.
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Close the retrospective

SaMoLo (More of, Same of, Less of) (#17)

Get course corrections on what you do as a facilitator
Source: Fairly good practices
Divide a flip chart in 3 sections titled 'More of', 'Same of', and 'Less of'. Ask participants to nudge your behaviour into the right direction: Write stickies with what you should do more, less and what is exactly right. Read out and briefly discuss the stickies section-wise.
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Retromat contains 127 activities, allowing for 8349005 combinations (25x30x22x22x23+5) and we are constantly adding more.

Created by Corinna Baldauf

Corinna wished for something like Retromat during her Scrummaster years. Eventually she just built it herself in the hope that it would be useful to others, too. Any questions, suggestions or encouragement? You can email her or follow her on Twitter. If you like Retromat you might also like Corinna's blog and her summaries on Wall-Skills.com.

Co-developed by Timon Fiddike

Timon gives Scrum trainings. He mentors advanced scrum masters and advanced product owners. Human, dad, nerd, contact improv & tango dancer. He has used Retromat since 2013 and started to build new features in 2016. You can email him or follow him on Twitter. Photo © Ina Abraham.