The Power of Sprint Review
Inspiring the team to focus on business outcomes and delivering value, rather than just outputs and resolving tasks.
As a product manager, scrum master, product owner, or team lead in a software company, you are constantly seeking ways to improve the development process and deliver value to your stakeholders. One technique that can help you achieve this is the Sprint Review. This article will explain how the Sprint Review template format can be a force that drives an outcome-driven mindset and ultimately leads to more successful project outcomes.
What is Sprint Review?
The Sprint Review is a meeting that takes place at the end of each development iteration, sprint, quarter, or any significant milestone that is important to your team and stakeholders. The purpose of the Sprint Review is to clearly communicate the work that has been completed so far, with a focus on business outcomes, value-added, and achieved milestones. By using this template, you can effectively articulate the value that has been delivered and ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page and to ensure that the team is moving in the right direction.
Why use the Sprint Review template format?
The Sprint Review template format is ideal for facilitating discussions around the work that has been done so far, as well as identifying areas where additional work may be needed. By using the same format repeatedly, you can increase transparency and collaboration within your team and with stakeholders, leading to more successful project outcomes.
The six segments of the Sprint Review template
- Functionality Description: In this segment, you should add a name and a short description of the functionality, along with some context to your audience, so they can understand what you are talking about. You should also add a description of the functionality, including what it does, where to find it, how to use it, and what the benefits are.
- Audience: In this segment, you should specify the persona, user segment, or user role that will benefit from using this functionality.
- Value Proposition: In this segment, you should clearly articulate the added value of the functionality. Focus on the user’s needs and describe how a specific functionality solves the problem in a unique and efficient way.
- Use Case: In this segment, you should provide an example of how a user might utilize this feature in their specific context or situation.
- Next Steps: In this segment, you should discuss any next steps that need to be taken in order to further develop the functionality or address any issues that have been identified.
- Notes: In this segment, you should add any additional notes or comments that you feel are relevant to the functionality and the development process.
What are the benefits for your and your team?
The Sprint Review template format can be a powerful tool in driving an outcome-driven mindset. By forcing the team to focus on business outcomes and delivering value, rather than just outputs and resolving tasks, you can improve the development process and increase the chances of successful project outcomes. Use this template format to increase transparency and collaboration, and to ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page.
Focus on outcomes
This template resembles a checklist that captures the value
proposition. This way, teams will always have their focus on the
outcomes and value delivered to the end user.
Improved communication
The same format will set the right expectations — the team will
know what to communicate and stakeholders will know what are
they getting.
Better planning
After several iterations, the team will be better at planning their
sprints, since they will shift their focus from feature factory to
outcome-driven development.
How to use this?
You can create your Sprint Review deck by using the examples and guidelines displayed in this article. Also, you can get a detailed collection of questions and suggestions here. These questions will guide you through the Sprint Review deck creation process, giving you hints and useful questions to help you out in creating a compelling review.
