Retrospective Gamification: Choose Five
In an earlier post, I introduced a retrospective technique called Retrospective from a Hat. The basic idea in Retrospective from a Hat is to gamify the process of deciding what to talk about during a retrospective, where the retrospective participants can choose from a number of different options, including retrospective exercises, retrospective topics, and/or retrospective questions.
In this post, I’m introducing another way to gamify retrospectives. As a starting point, let’s use The Fast and the Furious (and other F’s) retrospective activity , which was created by Christo Martens. (From this point on, we’ll call this technique “Choose Five;” you’ll see why shortly).
In the Fast & The Furious retrospective mentioned above, the facilitator asks team members to jot down observations that fall under one of the following categories, which all start with the letter F:
- Fast: things that went very fast;
- Furious: things that made you furious;
- Fun(ny): things that were fun or funny;
- First: things that you experienced for the first time;
- Fed up: things that you really annoyed you and want to get rid of.
Okay, so let’s move on to how to prepare for and facilitate this retrospective.
Facilitator Preparation
To prepare to facilitate this retrospective, you’ll need to think about five adjectives that all start with the same letter of the alphabet — these will serve as retrospective categories. Ideally, you should have a minimum of several sets of categories (for instance, one set of five categories that all start with the letter A, a second set that all start with another letter of the alphabet, and so on).
Once you’ve chosen some adjectives, write the letter they all start with on one side of a note card, and the words on the opposite side of a note card.
Here are some examples (with more than five words to choose from):
A
Astounding | Amusing |Admirable | Annoying |Awkward | Audacious |Abnormal | Aggravating
B
Best | Boring |Bad | Busy | Bizarre | Bickering | Boisterous | Baffling |Beautiful |Bellicose
C
Captivating | Calm |Crazy |Cacophonous |Confusing |Cranky | Cordial |Contentious |Costly
1. Draw five cells on a white board, flip chart, or electronic document.
Feel free to be creative — you can draw five squares or whatever shapes you prefer. Each of the shapes will be a container for a category of retrospective observations.
2. Describe the retrospective activity.
Explain that in a few moments, you will ask the team to choose a letter of the alphabet. Once they’ve chosen a letter, you will reveal five words that start with that letter of the alphabet. Those words will serve as categories for them to use when writing down their retrospective observations.
3. Ask the team to choose a letter of the alphabet.
How many letters of the alphabet they have to choose from depends on how many sets of five categories starting with the same letter that you have prepared in advance.
4. Reveal the five categories for the chosen letter of the alphabet.
Let’s say that you gave them five letters of the alphabet to choose from, and they chose the letter “A.” Let’s further suppose that the five categories you prepared in advance for the letter “A” are: Abnormal | Admirable | Amusing | Annoying | Aspiring.
5. Ask the team whether they want to keep that set of five categories.
Ask the team whether they want to keep that set of five categories, or instead choose a different set of five categories starting with a different letter. If they want to keep the categories they have chosen, go on to Step 6. Otherwise, go back to Step 3. (It’s up to you as the facilitator how many opportunities you want to give them to choose a different set; you could also consider introducing a stipulation that if they choose a different letter, they can’t go back to a different set that they already rejected.)
6. Ask the team to silently write down observations that fall into the five categories.
Give the team a set amount of time to write down observations that fall under any of the five categories. It’s fine to write down more than one observation per category, and it’s also fine to skip a category if they can’t think of anything that feels like it fits under that category. If you are having them write their observations on post-it notes, feel free to use five colors for clarity.
7. Arrange the observations into the five categories.
Arrange the team’s observations into five categories. You might choose to handle this step differently, depending on whether you are using physical or electronic media (or both). For instance, if all of the team members are in the same physical location, you can have them place their observations into the applicable spaces that you have drawn for them.
8. Discuss the observations.
Invite the team to talk about the observations that they have written down. You have numerous options. For instance, you can go category by category, or team member by team member.
9. Decide what happens next.
If you have an additional retrospective activity planned, help the team transition into that activity. Otherwise, decide what might be actionable steps they can take based on what they have just talked about.
