5 helpful ideas to crush running remote retrospectives
You know that retrospectives are at the heart of agile. They are those regular meetings where the team reflects on things and come up with ideas to improve them. And you probably have also attended some fair number of retros. I bet some were good. Some were bad. Most were “meh”. And Covid-19 only made things a bit more difficult. So, I wanted to share some tips into how to make an awesome remote retro.
Keep it fresh
Running the same retro activity every time is the worst. We all have been guilty of it. Mad, Sad, Glad? That’s a classic. But doing it every time will suck the life off your team!
What you want is to never repeat a retro activity. Ever! Thank goodness there are sites out there where we can look for inspiration. My favourite ones are Retromat, FunRetrospectives, and FunRetro.
Go through the activities in those sites and use your gut to select what would work for your team each time.
Say the team is doing BAU, go for a SailBoat type of activity. Or, if they are in for a good laugh, show them this YouTube video then do the Three Little Pigs activity! There is too much chaos? You can opt for something a bit more unstructured like a Lean Coffee.
Create your own
Over time you might realise that many retrospectives are rehash of the same idea. It’s usually a “mad/sad/glad” type of activity. Or a “force field” one (e.g., things that are pulling the team from their goals or pushing towards them).
Using those as blueprints you can come up with your very own retro activities.
For instance, on one occasion we were having team lunch. And one dev challenged another that he could not tell the difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero. So, I created a Coke-based retro. We “blind tasted” the two different drinks. And made analogies with the previous sprint. It was weird. Very weird. And fun! We got some good actions off it. That was before covid, but you get the gist of it. Use your imagination.
Take turns
The number one thing to keep things fresh is to rotate the retrospective facilitator. It’s not for every team. Or everyone. But that might be the best thing to happen if you can get it going.
People will surprise you with their creativity! And if you are lucky, they might even start a bit of a healthy rivalry to see who comes up with the best retro. Just help the facilitator to prepare beforehand. Ask her to playback the retro instructions to you to iron out any edges. And think about logistics (e.g. post-its, digital boards).
Track progress
At the end of your retro you will likely have a long list of retro actions and volunteers to do them. Give everyone a nudge mid-sprint to remind them about their actions. Or you will risk people just forgetting.
You can use a spreadsheet to track progress. For example, you can record things like date, retro activity used, retro action, volunteers. And we revisit those at the start of every new retro. It can also be useful to track feedback on the retro itself. Was it useful? Did they like it? That will help improve your own game.
Running a remote retrospective
Remote retros are both easier and harder.
The easier bit is organising and prioritising the ideas you collected from the team. In the office it’s usually just one or two guys doing it and those damn post-its keep falling down! On a digital board everyone can get involved. And it’s quicker!
The harder bit is keeping everyone engaged. As the facilitator you will likely have the digital board on your screen and not be able to see everyone. That’s a problem because you want even the quietest people to talk.
There are ways around that. You can ask for someone else to help by inviting the quieter members into conversation. Also, everyone should keep their mics on when possible. That will help conversation to flow. People will be able to laugh in response, or make quick interjections.
My favourite online tools these days are Google Jamboard (free) and Mural (paid), but Miro (paid) should also be awesome.
To make that awesome retrospective…
Remember that a retro is THE tool the team has to reflect and improve. Keep it fresh. Take turns to facilitate it. Track completion of actions. And keep an eye on those virtual conversations. After a few runs you are on your way to making the best retros your team has ever had!
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