About this sailboat retrospective
Our sailboat retrospective template enhances ideation, promotes team alignment, and facilitates efficient execution, offering an engaging and effective way to reflect on a team's progress.
What is a sailboat retrospective?
A sailboat retrospective is a visual and interactive method of conducting sprint retrospectives, particularly popular among agile teams. Imagine your team as a sailboat sailing towards its goals. The wind propels the boat forward, representing the positive forces aiding your team. The anchor symbolizes the challenges or impediments dragging the team down. Rocks ahead indicate potential risks and obstacles. This unique visualization encourages open dialogue, effective team communication, and problem-solving, turning retrospectives into a creative and proactive exercise.
When to use a sailboat retrospective?
A sailboat retrospective is particularly useful at the end of a sprint, project, or any significant team activity. It's a powerful tool for teams looking to assess their performance and prepare for future challenges in a constructive, non-confrontational manner.
How to use the sailboat retrospective
The Sailboat Retrospective is a group exercise completed together as a team. It can be done in-person or online.
- Set the scene: Explain the benefits of completing a team retrospective and how the Sailboat Retrospective helps to ignite ideas.
- Brainstorm: Ask your team to come up with one idea for each of the categories below.
- Discuss: Each team member then takes a moment to briefly explain what they wrote.
- Group and discuss: Group similar ideas together and discuss the underlying issues and strengths of each one.
- Vote: Team members can vote using reactions for the ideas they resonate with.
- Action plan: Create an action plan for the top priority items.
This sailboat retrospective template enables teams to look back, learn, and improve. It's not just about finding what didn't work—it's about celebrating success, mitigating challenges, and navigating future risks together.
