diegosouzapw When to Use
When facilitating sprint retrospectives or team improvement sessions.
Patterns
Start/Stop/Continue Format
## Sprint X Retrospective
### 🟢 START (new practices)
- [What should we begin doing?]
- [New tools, processes, habits]
### 🔴 STOP (remove friction)
- [What should we stop doing?]
- [What's not working?]
### 🟡 CONTINUE (keep doing)
- [What's working well?]
- [What should we keep?]
### 📋 Action Items
| Action | Owner | Due |
|--------|-------|-----|
| [specific action] | [name] | [date] |
4Ls Format (Alternative)
LIKED: What went well?
LEARNED: What did we learn?
LACKED: What was missing?
LONGED: What do we wish for?
Facilitation Tips
1. Timebox: 45-60 min max
2. Equal voice: everyone speaks
3. No blame: focus on process, not people
4. Action items: max 3, specific, owned
5. Follow-up: review last retro's actions first
Action Item Quality
❌ "Improve communication"
✅ "Daily 10min sync at 9am, owner: @lead, starts Monday"
❌ "Write more tests"
✅ "Add integration tests for auth module, owner: @dev, by Sprint end"
Anti-Patterns
- No action items (talk shop only)
- Too many action items (>3 = none done)
- Blame individuals instead of process
- Skip reviewing last sprint's actions
- Manager dominates discussion
Verification Checklist
- All team members contributed
- Max 3 action items
- Each action has owner + date
- Previous actions reviewed
- Notes documented