Retrospective templates that end in decisions
A retrospective template gives your team a ready-made structure — columns, prompts, and a flow — so the meeting starts with thinking, not setup. Start with the chooser below if you are deciding which format to run, or jump to the A–Z of all 26 formats if you already have a name in mind.
Which retrospective format should you use?
Match the format to what the team needs right now. Find the row that sounds like your situation — every format below has a full guide with examples, timings, and a step-by-step script.
No strong reason to pick anything else
Went Well / To Improve / Action ItemsThe default sprint retro. Needs no explanation and ends in owned decisions.
Retros end in vague agreement
Start, Stop, ContinueEvery card is already a behaviour change rather than an observation.
The sprint was rough and people need to be heard
Mad, Sad, GladStarts from how the work felt, then works backwards to the causes.
The team is steady and looking ahead
Rose, Bud, ThornReflective, with a column for potential rather than only problems.
The same problems keep coming back
Keep, Problem, TryTurns problems into experiments that get reviewed at the next session.
Meetings, tools and rituals have piled up unaudited
Open the BoxWorks through them item by item — keep, fix, or throw out.
You are reviewing a milestone or a quarter
4LsBuilt for learning, where what the team learned matters as much as what it would change.
A whole release needs reviewing, not one sprint
Release retrospectiveReconstructs the timeline first, so the final week does not stand in for two months.
What is coming matters as much as what happened
SailboatThe goal, the wind, the anchors and the rocks ahead, all on one board.
The team is at a turning point — new quarter, new shape, a launch ahead
Joy, Fear, ExcitementTwo of its three columns point forwards, at what people are dreading and looking forward to.
There is nothing to look back on yet
FuturespectiveImagines the finished outcome and works backwards to the enablers and risks.
Same, but you have twenty minutes
Hopes and ConcernsMost of the signal of a futurespective, in a third of the time.
The team knows its problems and just needs to talk
Lean CoffeePropose topics, vote, and discuss them in timeboxes instead of filling in columns.
Whatever you pick, rotate after about five sprints. Familiarity is comfortable, but a format the team can fill in on autopilot stops surfacing anything new.
Full guides with examples
Each guide includes the columns and prompts, real examples for engineering and product teams, timings, facilitation steps, and variations. The formats marked one-click are board templates in the create-board dialog; the rest run on a blank board with your own column names.
Start, Stop, Continue
One-clickThe fastest way to turn team feedback into concrete behavior changes.
Rose, Bud, Thorn
A gentle, visual format that surfaces wins, problems, and untapped opportunities.
Futurespective
A retrospective run before the work starts: imagine the outcome, then work backwards.
Hopes and Concerns
Twenty minutes that surface what people want — and what they are quietly worried about.
Open the Box
Treat how your team works like a box of tools — then decide what stays, goes, and gets added.
Keep, Problem, Try
Three columns that chain together: what to keep, what hurts, and the experiment you run next.
Sailboat
Wind, anchors, rocks, and the island — one picture of what moves the team and what holds it back.
Lean Coffee
An agendaless meeting that builds its own agenda in ten minutes — then actually sticks to it.
Release Retrospective
The retro for a whole release: timeline first, then the three things that change before the next one.
Went Well / To Improve / Action Items
One-clickThe default sprint retro: two honest columns and a short list of actions somebody owns.
4Ls
One-clickFour lenses that separate what the team felt, learned, missed, and wished for.
Mad, Sad, Glad
One-clickAn emotions-first retro that surfaces how the sprint felt before anyone proposes a fix.
Joy, Fear, Excitement
An emotions format that covers what energised the team and what it is dreading next.
Timeline
Facts first, feelings second: the format that beats recency bias over long periods.
Plus, Minus, Interesting
The three-column sort with a home for the observations every other format throws away.
Every retrospective format, A–Z
Looking up a format by name? Here is what each one is for and the columns it uses — including the formats that do not have a full guide on this site yet, so you can run them from the columns alone.
4Ls
also called Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed forA learning-first review for milestones and quarters, where what the team learned matters as much as what it would change.
LikedLearnedLackedLonged forFull guide, examples & timingsDAKI
also called Drop, Add, Keep, ImproveA four-column action format that splits "change it" into adding, improving and dropping outright — useful when a team keeps patching things it should delete.
DropAddKeepImproveESVP
also called Explorer, Shopper, Vacationer, PrisonerAn opening check-in, not a full retro: everyone anonymously says how they arrived — curious, browsing, along for the ride, or there under duress — so the facilitator knows the room before starting.
ExplorerShopperVacationerPrisonerFive Whys
also called 5 whys, Root cause analysisA root-cause technique rather than a board: take one problem and ask why five times, so the fix lands on the cause instead of the symptom.
ProblemWhy? (×5)Root causeCountermeasureFuturespective
also called FuturespectivesA retrospective run before the work starts: imagine the finished outcome, then work backwards to the enablers and risks that got you there.
The headlineWhat got us thereWhat nearly stopped usFull guide, examples & timingsHopes and Concerns
The twenty-minute version of a futurespective — what the team is hoping for and what it is worried about, before a project, migration or reorganisation begins.
HopesConcernsWhat would helpFull guide, examples & timingsJoy, Fear, Excitement
An emotions-first format that looks forwards as well as back: what the team enjoyed, what worries it about what is coming, and what it is genuinely looking forward to.
JoyFearExcitementFull guide, examples & timingsKALM
also called Keep, Add, Less, MoreA dial-based format: instead of starting and stopping practices outright, the team turns each one up or down. Good for mature teams tuning something that already works.
KeepAddLessMoreKeep, Problem, Try
also called KPT, Keep, Drop, TryAn experiment-driven format where problems become explicit "try this next sprint" bets that get reviewed at the following session.
KeepProblemTryFull guide, examples & timingsLean Coffee
An agenda-less discussion: the team proposes topics, votes, and talks through the winners in timeboxes — for when everyone already knows the problems and just needs to talk.
To DiscussDiscussingDiscussedFull guide, examples & timingsLearning Matrix
A four-quadrant board that reserves one quadrant for appreciating people by name, which is the part most formats leave out.
Went wellTo changeIdeasAppreciationsMad, Sad, Glad
also called Glad, Sad, Mad, Glad, Mad, Sad, Emotions retrospectiveAn emotions-first retro that surfaces how the sprint felt before anyone proposes a fix — the format for a sprint that went badly.
MadSadGladFull guide, examples & timingsNiko-Niko Calendar
also called Niko niko calendar, Mood calendarNot a single session but a running mood grid: each person marks how their day felt, every day, and the sprint-long pattern becomes the material for the retro.
One row per personOne column per dayA mood mark per cellOpen the Box
Treats the team’s meetings, tools and rituals as items in a box and audits them one at a time — keep, fix, or throw out.
Keep in the boxTake out of the boxAdd to the boxRecycleFull guide, examples & timingsPlus, Minus, Interesting
also called PMI, Plus minus interesting, Plus minus investingA fast three-column sort with a third column for things that were neither good nor bad but worth noticing — often where the useful signal hides.
PlusMinusInterestingFull guide, examples & timingsRAID
also called RAID analysis, RAID analysis futurespectiveA planning board borrowed for retrospectives: risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies, run forwards before a project or backwards over one that hurt.
RisksAssumptionsIssuesDependenciesRelease Retrospective
Reconstructs a timeline of the whole release before anyone writes an opinion, so the final stressful week does not stand in for two months of work.
TimelineWhat workedWhat hurtChange before the next releaseFull guide, examples & timingsRose, Bud, Thorn
A reflective format with a column for potential: what bloomed, what is budding, and what pricked. Good for steady teams looking ahead.
RoseBudThornFull guide, examples & timingsSailboat
also called Sailboat retrospective, Boat retrospectivePuts the goal, the wind, the anchors and the rocks ahead on one board — the common format that asks what is coming, not only what already happened.
IslandWindAnchorsRocksFull guide, examples & timingsSix Thinking Hats
The whole team looks at the same period through one lens at a time, in sequence, so nobody gets typecast as the optimist or the sceptic.
White — factsRed — feelingsBlack — risksYellow — benefitsGreen — ideasBlue — processSpeed Car
also called Speed car and abyss, Engine and parachuteWhat is driving the team forward, what is dragging it back, and — the column that earns the format — what could destroy the work entirely if ignored.
EngineParachuteAbyssStarfish
Start, Stop, Continue with two extra degrees of nuance, for teams whose answer is usually "more of that" rather than a clean start or stop.
Keep doingMore ofLess ofStart doingStop doingStart, Stop, Continue
also called Stop, Start, Continue, Start Continue Stop, Good, Bad, Start, StopThe most action-oriented format there is: every card is already a behaviour change rather than an observation.
StartStopContinueFull guide, examples & timingsThree Little Pigs
Sorts the team’s work by how much weight it will bear — what would blow over, what is holding for now, and what is genuinely solid.
Straw houseStick houseBrick houseTimeline
also called Timeline retrospective, Event timelineEveryone plots what actually happened against dates before writing a single opinion, which usually locates the cause faster than columns do.
EventsHighsLowsFull guide, examples & timingsWent Well / To Improve / Action Items
also called What went well, Went well, to improveThe default sprint retro: no explanation needed, ends in owned decisions, and the right answer whenever there is no strong reason to pick anything else.
Went wellTo improveAction itemsFull guide, examples & timings
Open any template as a live board
Pick a format, invite the team with a link, and start collecting honest input in under a minute.
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Related guides
How to run a sprint retrospective
The 5-phase agenda with exact timings for a 60-minute session.
What is a retrospective?
The complete guide: formats, cadence, and mistakes to avoid.
Retrospective timebox calculator
How long any of these formats should run for your sprint length and team size, split across the five phases.
Free agile tools
Sprint velocity, capacity, story points to hours, and sprint name generators — free, no sign-up.