3 Retro Formats That Don’t Work Virtually— or do they?

The retrospective is one of my favorite events in a sprint. It is an important moment for the team to give meaning to the term Continuous Improvement and a chance for the Scrum Master to practice facilitating a creative meeting. I take pride in in saying I (try to) always come up with a new (at least to that team) format to keep the energy and creativity flowing. 

But in lockdown-mode, I suddenly had to host the retro online. At first I used Parabol as an online tool to host the retrospective. Although this is a great tool, it wasn’t giving me the same energy and enthusiasm I normally recieve. Formats like Mad Sad Glad and Sailboat are the foundation of retrospectives, but I haven’t used them in a long time since they are quite predictable for both me and my teams. The most effective retrospectives trigger the mind and make you look at things from a different perspective as a group.

Luckily, I have a team that I feel safe experimenting with, and I decided to push myself to the limit. 

I want to try and facilitate retrospectives online that at first hand don’t seem to work remotely. 

Triple Nickels; virtual adaptation score 3,5 out of 5

I first learned about this format through the book Agile Retrospectives; Making Good Teams Great by Derby and Larsen, which I wholeheartedly recommend to both starting and more experienced Scrum Masters. Essentially, it boils down to having individual team members writing down ideas on a sheet of paper, leaving room between ideas and then handing their piece of paper to the person next to them. This team member can only add onto the stated idea (not breaking down the idea) and then move the paper down the circle to another team member sitting next to them. After 3 rounds, a fourth team member reads aloud the gathered ideas. One thing I like about this format is that it allows team members who are quiet and need more time to gather their thoughts to get an equal part in the discussion. 

The execution of bringing this to the virtual world was simple. Instead of having team members write on a sheet of paper, I had them open an email and address it to a colleague. 

In real life this format may already feel passive because you have to wait while the team writes their input and hands it down the circle. Doing so online enlarges this of course. Luckily, the rest of the format played out normally as ideas where shared and discussed. 

Futurespective; virtual adaptation score 5 out of 5

I can’t remember where or who I got this idea from, but the Futurespective has become one of my favorites. It is best to do this when your team is working up to a certain deadline. At the beginning of the session you set the stage: Today we are going to time travel, it is now [one day after big event] and we are doing the retrospective in two alternate universes. With one you do the ‘Sunshine and Rainbows’-retro where everything went perfect and with the other you do the ‘All hell broke loose’-retro where everything went bad. I’d prepared a board per retro with the categories Process (collaboration in the team), Technical (used tooling and product of the team), Environment (interactions outside of the team) and The Extra Mile for the positive retro / Murphy’s Law for the darker retro. I used Microsoft Whiteboard since I have more freedom and we can all collaborate. Pro Tip: have your team member download the actual app, as this gives more options than the limited web version. 

I prepared the board with my best drawing skills to set the stage. During my intro, the team started to colour in my lettering, showcasing how well they pay attention to me.

I have done this format a few times before and it always results in a fun-filled retrospective where people let their imagination run free, yet always delivering quality input for discussion on ‘how do we make sure this becomes reality (pointing to sunshine board) while this stays a figment of our imagination (pointing to dark board)’. Due to the freedom the Microsoft Whiteboard gives this format worked as good online as it does in real life. 

Take a stand; virtual adaptation score 2,5 out of 5

This exercise doesn’t have a format and I just named it ‘Take a Stand’ a minute ago. I was introduced to it by my friend Marianne and, in my opinion, it works best when the atmosphere is fairly laid back. When there is tension in or pressure on the team I’d consider a different format. When doing this in real life you prepare by drawing (I always use tape) a line on the floor and indicate a plus (stands for yes/agree) and minus (no/disagree) on each side of that line. Then you propose a statement and ask the team to position themselves accordingly. You can use statements like The quality of our work is the best we can do, This is the best team I’ve ever been a part of, or I’m proud to be a part of this team. I like bold statements as they give the most energy to the group. 

When attempting to do this virtually, I chose to facilitate because it seemed most ridiculous to attempt online. I used Microsoft Whiteboard again as a tool. To start (setting the stage) I had everyone draw an image of themselves. This started out just fine and raised some laughs. My first statement to test the water was ‘I think I’m a decent artist’. With the lasso selection tool they could select their image and move it across the board. This is where it went bad—and became hilarious. After the first statement, when people had to reposition themselves, characters got torn apart and virtual limbs where cut from bodies. Luckily, we found a way to work around this and the team truly enjoyed this retro format. As stated, this requires a team that is in for a laugh while still discussing quality talking points. 

As I usually don’t come up with my retro-format until a day before (often during a shower thought). I am curious to see what we will try next time. I’m wondering: is there a limit to what we can facilitate online or do we need to have courage to just go ahead and try? 

What retro format do you think is impossible online?