Project retro
A retro for any project, launch or season, not just a sprint: what worked and what to change next time.
Worth a look
- Build a tower, build a teamTom Wujec, TEDThe marshmallow challenge: why kindergartners beat business-school graduates at building something together. (opens in a new tab)
- Forget the pecking order at workMargaret Heffernan, TEDThe superchicken experiment, and why a team of stars loses to a team that helps each other. (opens in a new tab)
- How Google builds the perfect teamInsider TechCharles Duhigg on what Google found when it studied its own teams: who's on the team mattered less than how they treat each other. (opens in a new tab)
- How to turn a group of strangers into a teamAmy Edmondson, TEDHow the Chilean mine rescue worked with people who had never worked together, and what any new project team can borrow from it. (opens in a new tab)
- How to build a company where the best ideas winRay Dalio, TEDRadical transparency at Bridgewater: recorded meetings and everyone rating everyone's thinking in real time. Fascinating whether or not you'd want it. (opens in a new tab)
More (2)
- The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick LencioniPatrick LencioniThe author walks through his pyramid, from no trust to nobody owning results. You'll know which layer your team is stuck on. (opens in a new tab)
- Postmortem Culture: Learning from FailureGoogle SRE bookHow Google writes up what went wrong without hunting for someone to blame, so people tell the truth next time. (opens in a new tab)
The conviction read: a wide spread on 'shared fairly across the group' is the people who carried more than their share next to those who never noticed. That rarely gets said out loud in the retro, and it shapes who volunteers next.
What's in the template
- We achieved what we set out to do. puck
- The plan held up once the work started. puck
- We spotted problems early enough to act on them. puck
- The work was shared fairly across the group. puck
- I could raise a worry without it becoming a big deal. puck
- I'd run the next project the same way. puck
Questions about this template
How is this different from a sprint retro?
It is built for a whole project, launch or season, so it asks whether the plan held up and whether problems surfaced early enough, not how one short cycle went. Send it once the work has wrapped, to everyone who carried part of it.
How should I read a split on 'The work was shared fairly across the group'?
As a prompt for the retro, not a verdict on anyone. A wide spread often means the load felt uneven to some people, so ask the group how work was handed out and who picked up the slack, then change how you assign the next project.