Sailboat Retrospective

Outcomes

The sailboat retrospective is probably one of the most common, (attribution unknown,) easiest and earliest forms of collaboration frameworks, and is also useful for quick retrospectives that need to capture ideas quickly.

Timings

Allow 3-30 minutes for this exercise

Equipment

• Sheet of flip chart paper
• Sharpies for everyone in the group
• Post-it notes

Tasks

1. Start by drawing up a sailboat picture nice and big on the flip chart paper complete with wind to propel the sailboat, an anchor to hold the sailboat back, and underwater rocks that are waiting for the sailboat to run aground on.
2. Next describe the picture to the team and invite them to write their thoughts and comments on post-it notes, and place those that propelled the team forwards in the Sprint by the wind, those that held the team back during the Sprint by the anchor, and those that are potential hazards by the underwater rocks.
3. Facilitate the discussion with the team about the various items that they have put up on the sailboat picture, elaborating further why the items were important to them, and deriving any possible actions that can be done to improve the way the team are working
4. Finally dot vote on the actions with each team member havering 3 votes to identify which items are of high priority to the team

Don't forget to select at least one action to carry forwards to the next Sprint Planning session to be resolved in the next Sprint.