Summary
A retrospective pays off only when people arrive having already done the thinking. For remote teams I use a four-part canvas: a look back, more of and less of, feedback, and actions. The team fills it in on its own over a few days, and a 40-minute call clarifies the input and agrees at most four actions, each with an owner.
Why retrospectives
A retrospective is a regular meeting where a team looks back at the recent past to improve how it works together. People reflect on processes, tools, skills, relationships, challenges, and experiences, and the feedback helps both the team and each person in it. Retrospectives are a core part of continuous improvement. They give the team room for open feedback, which heads off frustration and clears up misunderstandings.
I have run my fair share. Done well, they have a significant effect on how a team performs afterwards. Too often they are done poorly and waste everyone’s time.
I combine them with team reflections. In a reflection, people share their thoughts, feelings, and opinions about a shared experience, and it is one of the strongest tools I know for openness and trust. The retrospective looks at the work and the process. The reflection brings the team closer together. A team that wants to be strong does both, regularly.
If you can, get the team into one room: a lot of non-verbal communication gets lost in remote rituals. Often that is not possible. Rather than skipping the retrospective, get the most out of the remote format.
The canvas
I made this canvas for my teams. It works for a classic retrospective too, and below is how I use it remotely. It has four sections.
1. A look back at what happened
The classic start. Each person reflects on the time since the last retrospective and shares how it felt.
2. More of and less of
Teams keep tools, processes, and rituals that worked once, while the context and the way they work keep changing. Reviewing what to keep and what to stop makes collaboration more effective.
3. Feedback to leadership, directs, and colleagues
Candid feedback makes a better leadership team, and team members should challenge each other to work together better. A healthy feedback culture is built like muscle: it aches at first, and it gets stronger and easier every time. Accept the discomfort.
4. Actions
Most teams forget to agree clear actions after a retrospective. Try to fix everything at once and you fix nothing. Pick at most four actions to complete by the next retrospective, and give each a clear owner.
Running the session
Going in unprepared wastes everyone’s time. It is hard to remember what happened and harder to decide what to share, and watching people write sticky notes on a call is a poor use of the time together.
So the input happens asynchronously. I prepare the canvas in Miro and send the link to the team; any collaborative document works, including a Google Sheet. The team fills it in over three to five days. Each person spends about 20 to 30 minutes and writes one to three sticky notes per section, so the essential topics stand out. Everyone adds their name, so the author of an unclear note can be asked.
An example note:
Niklaus: Having product teams in place with all the needed expertise reduced friction. We should keep working like this.
Reviewing the canvas
When everyone has contributed, cluster the input. Then hold a 40-minute session with the whole team. Everyone has already been through the canvas, so nobody needs bringing up to speed.
- First 20 minutes. Discuss the feedback, clarify unclear comments and suggestions, and check in with colleagues.
- Second 20 minutes. Decide which improvements to make, how, and who owns each one. Put one to four next actions at the bottom of the canvas.
Next
The canvas is how I build continual learning into a team. If you have ideas for improving it, I would like to hear them.
For more on how teams form and the rituals that connect them, see The TeamKit. It is a self-facilitated team formation process that helps a team choose its tools and methods and agree where it is going. It needs no prior knowledge of team formation.