The Good Tech Companies - Stop Boring Retrospectives: 18 Fun Templates to Spark Change

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/stop-boring-retrospectives-18-fun-templates-to-spark-change. Discover 18 fun sample sprint retrospective templates & formats for Scrum teams: from Mad Sad Glad to creative ideas like the DORA Metrics Retro. Check more stories related to product-management at: https://hackernoon.com/c/product-management. You can also check exclusive content about #scrum, #retrospective, #sprint-retrospective, #agile-retrospective, #psychological-safety, #scrum-team, #distributed-teams, #good-company, and more. This story was written by: @echometer. Learn more about this writer by checking @echometer's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. Changing the retrospective questions, formats based on different retrospective ideas can significantly boost team engagement and productivity in your retros: Try the DORA Metrics retro, the battery retro or the Spotify Health Check!

This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. Stop Boring Retrospectives. 18 fun templates to spark change by Echometer. Did you know that the most searched term on Google related to Agile Retrospective? As actually Agile Retrospective templates? It seems that many Scrum Masters, Agile team leads, and engineering managers who facilitate retrospectives value variety in their sprint ceremonies. As I mentioned in my recent post, top five retrospectives.

board tools, which is most fun. These search trends point to an interesting insight. Changing the retrospective questions, formats based on different retrospective ideas can significantly boost team engagement and productivity in your retros. If you'd prefer to skim through this post, the table below highlights some of the best retrospective templates based on my own subjective rating after participating in a few hundred agile retrospectives. It also includes the estimated duration. Scroll down to see the actual retrospective question. slightly smiling face retrospective template subjective rating estimated time 4l retrospective good thumbs up 40 to 60 minutes sailboat retrospective good thumbs up 40 to 60 minutes what went well

retro okay man gesturing okay 35 to 50 minutes mad sad glad retro okay man gesturing okay 35 to 50 minutes battery retrospective great check mark 50 to 60 minutes escape room retrospective good thumbs up 50 to 60 minutes. Harry Potter retrospective good thumbs up 50 to 60 minutes. Three Little Pigs retrospective good thumbs up 35 to 50 minutes. Spotify health check retrospective great check mark 35 to 50 minutes. Dora metrics retrospective great check mark 30 to 60 minutes. Psychological safety retrospective good thumbs up 25 to 40 minutes. Team morale health check good thumbs up 25 to 40 minutes. Valentine's Day retrospective okay man gesturing okay 35. 35. to 50 minutes. Easter retrospective good thumbs up 35 to 50 minutes. Halloween retrospective okay

man gesturing okay 35 to 50 minutes. Christmas retrospective good thumbs up 40 to 60 minutes, but is simply varying your retrospective template the only step you should take? Of course not. Regardless of whether your retrospectives are remote, hybrid, are co-located, there are a few common challenges I have seen in agile teams. Light bulb team members don't share improvement ideas. Even when issues, even when are obvious. Checkmark there's no time left at the end of the retro to brainstorm meaningful action items. Open-mouth face the team agrees on action items, but they're rarely implemented. Bar graph there's little or no data to measure whether retrospectives are actually effective. With that in mind, the goal of this article is twofold. One, to introduce 18 fun and engaging

retrospective templates designed for virtual, hybrid, and co-located teams. Two, to share six practical tips that address these higher level challenges in retrospectives at the end of this post. Some of the fun retrospective formats and ideas we'll explore include the Mad, Sad Glad retrospective, the what went well retrospective, the battery retrospective and the Dora metrics retro. Let's go, 18 fun retrospective templates and ideas. Let's start exploring engaging in creative retrospective formats. I'll briefly revisit what I consider the classic, and admittedly, a bit boring retrospective formats at the beginning, so you can compare them with the more creative ideas that follow. Pro tip. If you'd like to try any of these retrospectives with your team,

I've included a direct link to each template on the Echometer Retrospective Software Board Tool. By clicking the link, you can preview the template directly online in the tool, no login required. Transparency Note. I am a co-founder of Echometer, the Retrospective Software referenced in this post. I only recommend products that I I genuinely believe support agile teams in improving their retrospectives. The boring classic retrospective templates why do I consider the following agile retrospective templates a bit boring? Because if you've worked in a scrum team for a few years, you've likely used these formats

and questions many times before. They work, but they don't always provide the fresh perspective your team might need. Let's start with the 4L retro template. Brainbook 4L Sprint retrospective template the liked, learned, lacked, longed for 4L retrospective is one of the better-known classics. It stands out because it explicitly asks about learnings. A great way to foster psychological safety and continuous improvement in teams. The format is built around four simple questions. Greater than liked. What did you like lately? Greater than learned. What things did you learn lately? Greater than loved? What did you have fun with lately?

Greater than longed? What would you have needed lately to be able to work better? Right finger open 4L retro sailboat wave sailboat retrospective format the sailboat retrospective uses the metaphor of a boat at sea to help teams reflect on their sprint or project the boat represents the team's progress the wind their enablers and the anchors their blockers it works well for both remote and co-located teams but because it's been you said so widely it may no longer spark much surprise or creativity greater than imagine that we are a sailboat our anchor what holds us back greater than our shark iceberg which dangers or obstacles approach us greater than our tailwind what drives us forward greater than our paradise what achievement or milestones are we working towards right finger open

sailboat retro thumbs up check mark what went well retrospective the what went well retrospective focuses on the core questions every team should ask without adding much creativity it's simple and straightforward perfect for teams that prefer a minimalist approach or are just starting out with retrospectives greater than what are three recent things that went particularly well in your opinion greater than what are three recent things that did not go so well in your opinion greater than what should we improve right finger open what went well retro pouting crying smile mad sad glad retrospective format the mad sad glad format helps teams explore their emotions from the past sprint it's a timeless structure that encourages open communication though again many teams have

used it so often that it might feel repetitive greater than glad What made you happy? Greater than sad. What made you sad or disappointed you? Greater than mad. What made you mad? Right finger open mad, sad, glad, retro-engaging and fresh retrospective templates now. Let's move from the classics to some more creative and engaging retrospective templates and ideas. Battery high voltage battery retrospective template. What did you do yesterday? You probably charged your battery, whether it was your phone, laptop, or yourself. That's what makes the battery retrospective such a relatable format. The metaphor is simple and universally understood, which helps teams gauge their energy levels,

motivation, and overall health. It includes four reflective questions. Greater than what's your personal batteries charge percentage currently, greater than what's been draining your battery lately, greater than what's been recharging your battery lately, greater than what would help you save energy in the next week's right finger open battery retro old key door escape room retrospective format. This one's especially fun. The escape room retrospective invites your team to think like.

players trying to escape a locked room. What challenges are keeping you trapped? What tools or clues do you already have to get out? It's a creative, problem-solving format that sparks fresh thinking with four engaging questions. Greater than what puzzles do we still have to solve? Greater than where are we running out of time? Greater than where could communication in the team be better? Greater than which challenges did we master pretty well? Right finger open escape room retro magic want man-mage Harry Potter retrospective idea have Harry Potter fans on your team? Then this format will be a hit. The Harry Potter retrospective uses familiar elements from the magical world of Hogwarts to help teams reflect on their sprint from a new perspective. Even

for those unfamiliar with the series, the questions are easy to follow and encourage meaningful discussion. Greater than what is our Firebolt, Harry's broom, that helps us achieve our goals, greater than what surprising message did Messenger Owl Headwig have in her package for us, greater than based on your work, what would you see when you look into the mirror of, arise? The mirror shows your heartfelt wish. Greater than which recent memories would you like to save in a pensive to relive to relive later? Right finger open Harry Potter retro pig face house three little pigs retrospective idea the three little pigs retrospective uses the classic children's story to examine the strength

of what your team has built. Are your processes made of straw, sticks, or bricks? Even if you don't know the story, the metaphor, and the three guiding questions are easy to grasp and provoke valuable insight. Greater than House of Straw What do we do that is just holding together, but could topple greater than over at any moment? Greater than House of Sticks. What do we do that is relatively stable, but could be greater than improved, greater than House of Bricks? What do we do that as rock solid?

Right finger open three little pigs retro balloon bulls. i bonus. Retrospective waiting room game this isn't technically a retrospective template, but it's a fantastic retrospective icebreaker to kick things off. In Echo Meter's remote retrospective tool, your team can start with a playful mini game in the waiting room. Everyone competes to pop as many balloons as possible. See image below. It's a lighthearted way to boost energy, spark laughter, and refocus before diving into the session. You can select a retrospective template via this link. Once you click, start retro now, you'll enter the waiting room to try out the game, no login required. Team Health Check Retrospectives Team Health Check Retrospectives are a bit more advanced.

They combine reflection with lightweight data collection to measure how, healthy, your team feels. Typically, participants respond to statements using emojis or a numerical scale, for example, 1 to 7. I recommend collecting these responses anonymously, as I'd encourages honest feedback, and that honesty leads to richer discussions. Why try health check retrospectives? They spark conversations about important topics that might otherwise go and spoken. They help you track trends in team dynamics over time.

Anonymous responses reveal insights that might not surface in open conversation. You can easily add health check questions alongside your regular retrospective prompts. Let's start with one of the best known examples, the Spotify Health Check. Bar graph green heart Spotify health check retrospective format the Spotify Health Check is one of the most popular formats for Agile Teams. Idis's 11 core questions to gauge how a team is performing and feeling. Team members rate each statement on a 1 to 7 scale, then collectively decide where improvements are most needed. It's especially useful for scrum teams aiming to stay customer focused and continuously improve. Retro questions scale.

Red circle disagree yellow circle neutral green circle agree. We love going to work and have great fun working together. Greater than we always get great support and help when we ask for it, greater than we are a totally gelled super team with awesome collaboration, greater than we're learning lots of interesting stuff all the time, greater than we are in control of our destiny. We decide what to build and how to build it, greater than we know exactly why we are here, and we are really excited about it. Greater than we get stuff done really quickly. No waiting, no delays. Greater than our way of working fits us perfectly. Greater than we deliver. We ever great stuff. We're proud of it and our stakeholders are really greater than happy.

Greater than we're proud of the quality of our code. It is clean, easy to read, and has greater than great test coverage. Greater than releasing is simple, safe, painless and mostly automated. Right finger open Spotify Health Check Retro Upward Trend PC Dora metrics retrospective idea if you're a scrum master or engineering manager, you've likely heard of the DORA metrics. four key indicators that measure software delivery performance. Reflecting on your team's Dora metrics in a retrospective helps connect qualitative insights with quantitative data. You can also benchmark your team performance here. This format includes eight questions, four based on Dora's health check, metrics and four exploring your team's subjective experience.

Retro questions scale. Red circle disagree yellow circle, neutral green circle agree. Our code deployments very rarely cause errors in production. Greater than I am really satisfied with how often we release to production. Greater than after the code has been committed, we are very quick to push it to production. Greater than in case an error occurs in production, we are able to fix it very quickly. Greater than what would improve our deployment frequency, greater than what is our bottleneck to push changes to production quickly, greater than what would make our deployments less prone

to errors, greater than what helps us to fix errors in production quickly. right finger open door a retro puzzle piece handshake psychological safety retrospective format as a psychologist I'm thrilled to see how Amy Edmondson's work on psychological safety has become so influential in the agile community yet many teams still struggle to address it effectively as the saying goes if you can't measure it you can't improve it this retrospective template does exactly that it measures psychological safety through seven statements inspired by Edmondson's validated approach your team rates each statement and the higher your average score, the safer and more open your team environment is. For additional context and tips, see my six tips for better agile retrospectives further below.

Retro questions scale. Red circle disagree, yellow circle, neutral green circle agree, people on this team feel comfortable challenging each other about their plans greater than an approaches. Greater than members of this team are able to flag problems, even if doing this slows greater than progress. Greater than people on this team won't reject us. others for thinking differently. Greater than it's safe to take a risk or propose a weird idea with this team. Greater than I feel comfortable giving constructive criticism to people on this team.

Greater than it's always easy to ask team members for help, even when they are busy. Greater than no one on this team would deliberately undermine my efforts. Right finger open psychological safety retrospective smile biceps team morale health check retrospective house the morale in your team? The team morale health check retrospective explores this question. through six diverse prompts touching on motivation, satisfaction, and teamwork. You can also combine it with open-ended questions to deepen reflection, as with all other health check formats. Retro questions scale. Red circle disagree yellow circle neutral green circle agree greater than I have enough room for breaks in which I can draw new energy. Greater than our meetings are well-structured,

yet leave room for creativity and new ideas. Greater than in my team, each team member passes on their individual knowledge and greater than experience. Greater than we value the performance and contributions of our colleagues. Greater than everyone in my team knows who is currently working on what. Greater than there is a trusting working atmosphere in our team. Right finger open morale health check retro car fuel pump bonus icebreaker. Car check in when running a team health check retrospective. Consider starting with a fun icebreaker. The car icebreaker check in template and Echometer lets teams visualize how their sprint performed. Whether they felt more like a racing car or a car running on empty, see image below. You can select a retrospective template via this

link. Once you click, start retro now, you'll be able to enter this icebreaker and see this template, no login required. Seasonal retrospective templates, an easy way to keep retrospectives fresh is to match them with the current season or holiday. Below are four themed templates to help your team celebrate the moment, while still reflecting on their work. Love Letter Rose Valentine's Day retrospective idea great teamwork is built on trust and strong relationships. So, does your team feel the Valentine's spirit? Find out by asking these three lighthearted yet meaningful retrospective questions. Greater than what has been the best moment in our team relationship so far, greater than what didn't feel romantic at all since the last retro, greater than what do we

still need to work on in our relationship? Right finger open Valentine's Day retro rabbit face egg Easter retrospective format Easter means crunch time for the Easter bunny, just like delivery pressure in your sprints. This fun retrospective uses three questions to reflect on how well your team met its goals and handled delivery challenges. Greater than we are the Easter bunny team. What didn't go well with the delivery of the greater than Easter eggs? Greater than what influenced our Easter egg delivery positively or negatively. Greater than how can we make the delivery process smoother next time. Right finger open Easter retro Jack O' Lantern Ghost Halloween retrospective template. Did your last sprint feel like a horror story? The Halloween retrospective

helps your team process what went wrong and identify action items to ensure there's nothing to fear next time. Greater than fright. What has been your fright moment since the last retro? Greater than treats. What treats have we prepared for our stakeholders? Greater than tricks. Which tricks, potentially being played on us, do we need to watch out greater than four? Right finger open Halloween retro snowman gift Christmas retrospective template? Do you want to build a snowman? Totally, Anna, the Christmas, or winter, retrospective uses four questions to help your team reflect on collaboration, delivery quality, and celebration during the holiday season. Greater than lower ball. What is the base on which we can build, greater than middle ball? What holds us together? Greater

than head? In which direction do we want to look? What do we want to keep in mind, greater than hat? What nice to haves would be great. Right finger open Christmas retro five non-intuitive tips. How to have a great retrospective. You now have a selection of great retrospective templates, but as I mentioned it earlier, there's more to a great retrospective than just the format. Here are a few unintuitive, often undervalued tips for what many consider the most important

scrum meeting. I believe many teams can benefit from them. Let's dive in. TIP1. your retrospectives before THE weekend and an analysis of 30,000 agile retrospectives, the retrospective software Echometer compared ROTI scores, subjective, return on time invested, by weekday. The result? Mondays had the lowest ROTI, while Fridays scored the highest. Accordingly, to maximize perceived value, schedule your retrospectives on Fridays when possible.

Tip 2. Have fewer action ITMS which is better, implementing one high impact action item or juggling a list of three mediocre ones, two of which never get completed. In my experience, follow-through is often limited, both due to quality and quantity of action items. I recommend limit action items to a maximum of two per sprint. Avoid building a backlog of unimplemented actions. Ensure the team believes the items are achievable and impactful. Tip three. Make review of action items part of the retro agenda some team members experience retrospective fatigue, feeling that retros are a waste of time. One common reason. Previous action items are forgotten or ignored,

a simple fix. Dedicate a fixed agenda slot early in the retro, after the icebreaker or warm-up, to review and discuss the action items from the last retrospective. This reinforces accountability and engagement. Tip four. Have six retro phases instead of five when you went through the scrum master qualification program, you learn to structure retrospectives in five phases. One, setting the stage, check in. Two, gathering data, divergent thinking. Three, generating and prioritizing insights, convergent thinking. Four, deciding what to do. Action planning. Five, closing. Check out, reflection. The thing is, as the double diamond design framework recommends, I would strongly recommend to have two divergent and two convergent phases. What does this

mean for your retros add a dedicated brainstorming phase for action items before final prioritization this extra step significantly improves both the quality and implementability of your actions updated six phase structure one setting the stage check in two gathering data divergent thinking 3. Generating and prioritizing insights, convergent thinking. 4. Deciding what to do. Action planning. Check mark brainstorm action items, divergent thinking. Check mark prioritize action items, convergent thinking. 5. Closing the retrospective. Check out, reflection TIP 5. Track delivery happiness. In numbers, track your team's satisfaction with delivery over time. For example, ask for agreement to the following statement. I am super satisfied with our delivery in the last weeks. This allows you to

one, monitor mood trends visually over time. Two, reflect in each retro weather improvements have been made. For a practical, real-world example of this, watch Agostina explain their process in this 5-minute video. TV1 Agile metric for leadership. How this Agile Team boosts delivery. Five-minute video. Tip 6. Increase psychological safety. High psychological safety encourages team members to raise the elephants in the room. Ways to foster it. Lead with vulnerability. Show your own mistakes or challenges. Normalize failure. Celebrate lessons learned or mistakes as learning opportunities. Encourage open discussion without judgment. For more guidance, see this overview, psychological safety. Conclusion. Best retrospective templates. Don't get me

wrong. Not every team needs to change their retrospective template regularly. Always adapt questions and formats to your team's personality and situation. But, I truly believe great agile leadership often isn't about giving orders. It's about asking the right questions and listening well. Even occasional changes to your retro style or questions can significantly boost engagement. Have fun experimenting, FAQ, retrospective templates and ideas. Q. Which retrospective templates produce actionable insights? A. In my experience, the battery retrospective and psychological safety retrospective generate questions. that lead to meaningful, implementable feedback.

If you are a software team, you should consider the Dora metrics retrospective. Q. Which online retrospective tools offer diverse templates? A. Most tools now provide template libraries. Examples. Easy Retro, Retrium and Echometer. Personally, my biased recommendation, as a co-founder, is to try Echometer for its holistic approach to engagement, fun, and actionable retrospectives. Q. Which Sprint Retrospective template is the most fun? A. Fun depends on the entire experience, not just the retrospective questions. Icebreakers, waiting room activities, and engagement matter,

and why I like software tools like Echometer which provide templates covering all phases of a retrospective, ensuring a holistic, enjoyable session. How do I pick a retro template for maximum fun? Taylor it to your team's current mood and interests. Examples. Recent discussion about stranger things, current sports events, trending topics your team enjoys or dislikes. Thank you for listening to this Hackernoon story, read by artificial intelligence. Visit hackernoon.com to read, write, learn and publish.