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Retrospective templates

23 ready-to-use formats for retros, planning and team health — every one a single click when you create a board, and fully customizable after.
Start a retro with any template

Classic

The proven formats most teams start with — simple, fast and hard to get wrong.

Classic Retrospective
What went well? · What could be improved? · Action items

The timeless what went well / what didn’t / actions format.

Best for: Any team’s regular sprint retro — the default for a reason.

Start, Stop, Continue
Start · Stop · Continue

Decide what to start doing, stop doing, and keep doing.

Best for: Teams drowning in process — the “Stop” column earns its keep.

Mad, Sad, Glad
Mad · Sad · Glad

Explore the team’s emotional temperature over the sprint.

Best for: After a rough release or stressful period, when feelings matter more than process.

4Ls
Liked · Learned · Lacked · Longed for

Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for.

Best for: Learning-focused reviews — great after finishing a project phase.

KALM
Keep · Add · Less · More

Keep, Add, Less, More — tune team behaviours.

Best for: Fine-tuning how an already-healthy team works together.

DAKI
Drop · Add · Keep · Improve

Drop, Add, Keep, Improve.

Best for: Decisive teams that want concrete process changes, not just discussion.

Plus / Delta
Plus (+) · Delta (Δ)

Simple two-column: what’s working, what to change.

Best for: Short check-ins and time-boxed retros under 30 minutes.

Creative

Metaphor formats that reframe familiar complaints and surface longer-term concerns.

Sailboat
Wind (pushing us) · Anchors (holding us back) · Rocks (risks ahead) · Island (our goal)

Wind, anchors, rocks and the island — a voyage metaphor.

Best for: Zooming out to goals and risks when weekly formats feel stale.

Hot Air Balloon
Hot air (lifting us) · Sandbags (weighing us down) · Storms ahead · Clear skies

What lifts the team up and what weighs it down.

Best for: Balancing reflection (what drags us) with foresight (what’s ahead).

Starfish
Keep doing · Less of · More of · Stop doing · Start doing

Keep, Less, More, Stop, Start — five ways to adjust.

Best for: Mature teams who want more nuance than Start/Stop/Continue.

Three Little Pigs
House of straw (fragile) · House of sticks (okay) · House of bricks (solid)

Straw, sticks and bricks — how solid is what we build?

Best for: Engineering teams reviewing technical debt and robustness.

Rose, Bud, Thorn
Rose (wins) · Bud (potential) · Thorn (pain)

Wins, growth opportunities, and pain points.

Best for: Gentle, positive framing — good for newer or mixed-discipline teams.

Superhero Retro
Superpowers · Kryptonite · Villains · Missions

Superpowers, kryptonite and the villains we face.

Best for: Injecting energy when retro fatigue sets in.

Team health

Formats about how the team feels, not just how the work went.

Energy Levels
Energizing · Draining · Ideas to recharge

Check in on how the team is really feeling.

Best for: Spotting burnout early — run monthly alongside your normal retro.

Team Health Check
Delivery · Collaboration · Learning · Fun

Delivery, collaboration, learning and fun.

Best for: A quarterly temperature check across the dimensions that matter.

Appreciation Retro
Kudos 👏 · Thank you 🙏 · Shout-outs 📣

Celebrate each other — kudos and thanks.

Best for: End of quarter, after a big launch, or whenever morale needs a boost.

Planning

Look forward instead of back — retros aren’t the only thing boards are good at.

Sprint Planning
Sprint goals · Capacity & constraints · Risks · Commitments

Goals, capacity and risks going into the sprint.

Best for: Kicking off a sprint with shared, visible commitments.

Lean Coffee
To discuss · Discussing · Discussed

To discuss, discussing, discussed — democratic agenda.

Best for: Meetings without a fixed agenda — the votes decide what gets talked about.

SWOT
Strengths · Weaknesses · Opportunities · Threats

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

Best for: Strategy sessions and product reviews beyond the sprint cycle.

Pre-mortem
What could go wrong? · Early warning signs · Preventive actions

Imagine the project failed — why? Prevent it now.

Best for: Before starting anything big — surface risk while it’s still cheap to fix.

Feedback

Deeper-dive formats for reviews, incidents and one-on-ones.

One-on-One
Wins since last time · Challenges · Feedback · Next steps

Structure a recurring 1:1 conversation.

Best for: Managers who want 1:1s to be more than a status update.

Project Post-mortem
What happened? · What went well? · What went wrong? · Lessons learned · Actions

A deeper dive after a project or incident ends.

Best for: Incidents and finished projects that deserve a thorough look back.

Feedback Grid
Likes · Criticisms · Questions · Ideas

Likes, criticisms, questions, and ideas.

Best for: Design reviews, demos and gathering structured input on anything.

Don’t see your format?

Start from any template — or blank — and add, rename and recolor columns freely.

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