Meeting canvases · Team routines
Retrospective template: run your retro live as the team talks
A retrospective is a short, regular meeting where a team looks back at a sprint or a project and agrees what helped, what got in the way and what it will change. A retrospective template sorts what people say into columns, such as what went well, what to improve and what to try next, so the team can vote and leave with a few changes it owns.
Troopa builds the board during your call on Teams, Zoom or Google Meet. Say “Hi Troopa, let’s do a retro board”, or say yes when Troopa offers one because the meeting is called a retrospective, and each point lands in Went well, To improve or Try next as people make it, with its votes beside it.
14 days free, no card. Then $15 per seat, per month. Cancel any time. Last checked against the product on 21 October 2026.
Why retros stop working
- The same problems come up every time, because last retro’s changes were never picked up again.
- The loudest people fill the board, and the quietest say nothing at all.
- Somebody has to type every sticky note while running the conversation, so they do neither well.
- It turns into venting: plenty said, nothing agreed, and everybody leaves a bit worse off.
- Ten actions get agreed, nobody owns them, and by the next sprint nobody remembers what they were.
- The format has not changed in a year, and people stopped bringing anything new to it months ago.
How to run a retrospective with Troopa
Step 1: Open the board
When the meeting is called a retrospective, Troopa offers the board as it starts. Or say “Hi Troopa, let’s do a retro board for the sprint”.
Step 2: Write first, then go round
Give everyone three minutes to write their points alone, then go round the room and read them out. Each point lands in its column as it is read.
Step 3: Vote on what matters
Vote on the card, or say “plus one for the flaky deploys”, and each point shows its votes, so the room can see which few to spend its time on.
Step 4: Agree a few changes
Pick one to three things from Try next, change their words on the card until they are specific, and give each a name and a date in your tracker.
Step 5: Keep it for next time
Present the board to close, and download it as Markdown, PDF or CSV. It stays with the meeting’s notes, so the next retro can start by reviewing this one.
A worked example: the retro after Black Friday
An online retailer’s web and operations team holds its retrospective the week after its biggest sale, on Google Meet. Nadia facilitates with Troopa open; the team wrote its points down first.
- Nadia“Hi Troopa, let’s do a retro board for Black Friday week.”
- Ollie“Went well: the queue page held up at the peak.”
- Ruth“To improve: the promo codes went live an hour late, because the sign-off sat in an inbox.”
- Ollie“Plus one to that.”
- Sam“Try next: a dry run of every promotion the week before.”
- Ruth“And support had no warning about the delivery delays. That’s one to improve.”
- Nadia“Plus one for the dry run. That’s our change for the next sale.”
Retrospectives beyond the sprint
Public sector
An end-of-phase retrospective after discovery, alpha or beta, with procurement and policy colleagues in the room as well as the delivery team, so what the phase taught reaches the people who fund the next one.
Agencies and consultancies
A campaign retro after launch, or an end-of-engagement lessons learned review with the client. The board decides what goes into the wrap-up report, in the words the client and the team used.
E-commerce
The retro after peak season: promotions, stock, support and site changes, held while people still remember the details, with one change agreed before the next sale.
Finance teams
A month-end or year-end close retro: what slowed the close, which reconciliation fought back, and what to automate before next month.
Manufacturing
A line team’s improvement review at the end of a week: what helped output, what stopped it, and the one change to try on Monday, the small, steady improvement lean teams call kaizen.
Schools and colleges
A teaching team’s end-of-term review: what went well, what would be even better if, and the one thing to change in next term’s scheme of work.
A sprint retrospective template you can use today
Open with last time’s changes, keep the columns simple, and close with no more than three changes, each with a name. Try another format when this one goes stale: Start, Stop, Continue; Mad, Sad, Glad; or a sailboat with wind, anchors and rocks.
Retrospective: [team], [sprint or period], [date] Facilitator: [name] Here: [names] Last time’s changes - [change]: done / in progress / dropped, because [...] Went well To improve Try next - [point] (+votes) - [point] (+votes) - [point] (+votes) - [point] (+votes) - [point] (+votes) - [point] (+votes) Changes we will make (one to three) 1. [what, specifically] · [who] · [by when] · [how we will know it worked] Thanks to: [who, and for what]
Retrospective questions that get past the obvious
- What helped us most this sprint, and how do we make sure it happens again?
- What slowed us down the most, and was it in our control?
- What surprised us, and which assumption turned out to be wrong?
- Did the change we agreed last time help?
- Talk about the work and the system, never about a person: the retrospective Prime Directive assumes everyone did the best job they could with what they knew.
- Give everyone three votes, then spend the time on the top few points only.
Questions about retrospectives
What happens in a sprint retrospective?
A sprint retrospective is the meeting at the end of each sprint where the team looks at how it worked, not what it built: its people, its tools and its ways of working. It ends with a few improvements the team will make, which the Scrum Guide says can go straight into the next sprint’s backlog.The Scrum Guide (2020), by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland →
How long should a retrospective be?
The Scrum Guide caps it at three hours for a one-month sprint and less for shorter ones. Most teams on two-week sprints take forty-five minutes to an hour and a half; a strict timebox keeps it from turning into a list of complaints.The Scrum Guide (2020), by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland →
What are the five stages of a retrospective?
Set the stage, gather data, generate insights, decide what to do, and close. The stages come from Esther Derby and Diana Larsen’s book Agile Retrospectives, and they keep a retro from jumping straight from complaints to actions without asking why.
What is the difference between a retrospective and a sprint review?
A sprint review looks at the product: what was built, shown to stakeholders, and what to do next. A retrospective looks at the team: how it worked together and what it will change. The review comes first, then the retro.
Can you run a retrospective remotely?
Yes. In an online retrospective on a video call, give people a few minutes to write their points alone, then go round and read them out, so the people who speak first do not set the agenda. A board everyone can see, presented on the shared screen, does the job of the wall of sticky notes.
Is a retrospective the same as a post-mortem?
They are cousins. A retrospective is held regularly, at the end of every sprint or phase, whatever happened. A post-mortem, or incident review, is held after something went wrong, such as an outage, and reconstructs that one event to learn from it.
Sources
- Principles behind the Agile Manifesto
- The Scrum Guide (2020), by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland
- Agile Retrospective Resource Wiki, The Prime Directive (Norm Kerth)
- GOV.UK Service Manual, Agile tools and techniques
Read on 15 October 2026, by the people who make Troopa.
Try it in your next meeting
Install Troopa on your Mac, Windows PC or Ubuntu computer, join your call on Teams, Zoom or Google Meet as you always do, and ask: “Hi Troopa, let’s do a retro board for Black Friday week.”
14 days free, no card. Then $15 per seat, per month. Cancel any time.