How can you apply the starfish game to improve your Scrum team's collaboration and communication?

1 What is the starfish game?

The starfish game is a sprint retrospective game that helps your team to share their opinions and feelings about the last sprint, and to generate ideas for improvement. The game is based on the metaphor of a starfish, which has five arms. Each arm represents a different category of feedback: keep doing (what worked well and should be continued), less of (what was good but could be reduced or optimized), more of (what was good but could be increased or enhanced), stop doing (what was harmful or ineffective and should be eliminated), and start doing (what was missing or needed and should be introduced).

3 How to run the starfish game?

To run the starfish game, ask each team member to write one feedback item per sticky note, and to place it on the corresponding arm of the starfish. Encourage them to be honest, specific, and constructive. You can also ask them to use different colors for positive and negative feedback, or to prioritize their feedback by using symbols or numbers. Once everyone has posted their feedback, review the starfish together as a team. Start with the keep doing arm, and move clockwise. For each arm, discuss the feedback, look for patterns, and agree on action items.

5 How to adapt the starfish game?

The starfish game is a flexible and adaptable game that can be used for different purposes and contexts. You can modify the categories, the format, the questions, and the duration of the game to suit your team's needs and preferences. For example, you can use different categories like happy, sad, confused, surprised, and curious, or use a different shape like a flower or a wheel. You can also use online tools like Miro or FunRetro to run the game remotely, or use different prompts like what did you learn, what did you enjoy, what did you struggle with, what did you appreciate, and what do you wish for.