retrospective

Retrospective Workflow

Goal

Run a structured, blame-free retrospective that produces clear, owned action items the team will actually execute. Not a venting session — a problem-solving session.

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Step 1: Set the Stage

Establish ground rules:

• This is a blame-free session — we discuss systems and processes, not people
• Everything said here stays in the retro doc unless explicitly agreed otherwise
• We focus on actionable improvements, not just complaints

Ask:

1. Sprint name / number?
2. Who is participating? (list personas or team members)
3. Any topics to explicitly put on the table?

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Step 2: What Went Well?

Go around — each participant shares at least one positive:

• Something that worked better than expected
• A process or decision that paid off
• A collaboration or communication win

Capture all positives. Group related ones into themes.

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Step 3: What to Improve?

Go around — each participant shares their main friction point:

• Something that slowed the team down
• A process that caused confusion or rework
• A missing artifact, decision, or communication

Capture all points. Group into themes. Vote (or let the Team Lead choose) the top 2 to dig into.

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Step 4: Root Cause — Five Whys

For each top-2 improvement area, run a five-whys:

Problem: [description]
Why 1: [answer]
Why 2: [answer]
Why 3: [answer]
Why 4: [answer]
Root cause: [answer]

Stop when you reach a root cause the team can actually address.

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Step 5: Action Items

For each root cause, define ONE action item:

Action	Owner	Due Date	Success Criterion
...	...	...	...

Rules:

• One owner per action (not "the team")
• Due date is no later than end of next sprint
• Success criterion is observable — you can verify it happened

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Step 6: Appreciation Round

Each participant thanks one other participant for something specific this sprint.

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Step 7: Output

Save to {docsPath}/planning/retro-{sprint}.md with:

• Sprint metadata
• Went well (grouped themes)
• To improve (grouped themes)
• Root cause analysis for top 2
• Action items table
• Appreciation notes