After The Retrospective

Gathering Feedback From Participants#

The facilitator may choose to spend the last couple minutes of the retrospective gathering real-time feedback from the team. Teams call this a "retro on the retro."

Questions intended for the facilitator to solicit feedback from team members on the retrospective include:

• "Did the retrospective style work well?" or "Do you prefer retrospective style A or B?"
• "Was there sufficient structure to the retrospective?"
• "Did you feel included in the discussion?"

Following Up On Action Items#

It's important to follow up on action items with the team to see what progress was made towards fixing the issues they identified.

The facilitator can follow up on action items at the team's next scheduled retrospective. However, if there is a significant time gap until the next retrospective (e.g., a month or more), the team lead can follow up on the action items at the team's next full team meeting.

If no progress was made on a previously determined action item, it’s important for the team to identify why progress didn’t happen without assigning blame. From there, the team can make a more conscious effort to enact the action item going forward, redefine, or clarify the action item, or even scrap it completely if the issue has disappeared on its own. Read up on moving your organization towards a blameless culture here.