sethdford Project Retrospective
Run a blameless, time-boxed retrospective that turns experience into 2–3 concrete actions—not a wish list. The retro fails if nothing changes; systems and processes are the focus, not individuals.
When to Use
- End of phase, release, incident follow-up, or recurring team improvement cadence (e.g. monthly).
Workflow
Before: Review status of last retro’s action items; drop or reschedule stuck items explicitly. Time-box: ~60 minutes. Formats (pick one): Start / Stop / Continue; 4Ls (Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for); Sailboat (wind = helps, anchor = hinders, rocks = risks). Facilitate so everyone speaks; capture themes, not vent dumps. End: Agree 2–3 specific, owned, dated actions. After: Track actions like any other work—the next retro opens with them.
Examples
Example 1: Post-release retro uses 4Ls; team spots “Lacked: staging parity.” Action: add one checklist item to release runbook and owner by next sprint.
Example 2: Incident retro uses sailboat; “rocks” include on-call handoff gaps. Actions: update paging policy, run a dry-run drill, assign owners—no naming who “messed up.”