Retrospectives
Tagsretrospectiveworkshopagilitycontinuous improvementteam

First team retrospective

A 90-minute retrospective format to reflect on a team's first months, celebrate what works, and agree on a few concrete improvement actions.

A retrospective designed for a newly formed team. It helps the group look back on its first months together, celebrate what already works, make irritants visible, and choose a small number of concrete actions.

90 minutes

Theme: looking back on our first months together.

Goal of the session

  • Reflect on the first months since the team was created.
  • Celebrate what is already working well.
  • Identify opportunities for improvement.
  • Agree on a small number of concrete improvement actions.

Step 01

Welcome & set the stage

10 min

Purpose

Today is not about judging performance or reviewing scores. The objective is to learn from our experience and identify ways to improve how we work together.

Working agreements

  • Be open and honest.
  • Focus on the system, not on individuals.
  • Everyone's perspective matters.
  • Listen to understand, not to respond.
  • What is said here stays here, lessons leave the room.

Thinking about our first months as a team, what is one word that describes the experience so far?

Each participant shares one word and a short explanation, 30 seconds maximum.

Step 02

Proud

15 min

What are we most proud of since the team was created?

Reflection prompts

AchievementsCollaborationDeliveriesTeam spiritLearningStakeholder relationshipsCustomer impact

Share & cluster

  • Add sticky notes individually.
  • Group similar ideas together.
  • Identify common themes.

Debrief questions

  1. 1What patterns do we see?
  2. 2What contributed to these successes?
  3. 3What should we continue doing?

Step 03

Frustrated

15 min

What has made our work more difficult or frustrating?

Examples

CommunicationPrioritizationDependenciesProcessesStakeholder interactionsRole clarityDecision making

Share & cluster

  • Add sticky notes individually.
  • Group similar ideas together.
  • Identify common themes.

Debrief questions

  1. 1Which frustrations appear most often?
  2. 2What impact do they have?
  3. 3Which ones are within our control?

Step 04

Confused

15 min

What remains unclear or difficult to understand?

Examples

Team visionPrioritiesRoles & responsibilitiesDecision makingSuccess criteriaStakeholder expectationsWays of working

Share & cluster

  • Add sticky notes individually.
  • Group similar ideas together.
  • Identify common themes.

Debrief questions

  1. 1Where do we lack alignment?
  2. 2Which topics create uncertainty?
  3. 3What would help create more clarity?

Step 05

Agile Maturity Assessment insights

15 min

Introduction

The Agile Maturity Assessment is only one source of information. We will primarily focus on our real experience as a team.

The purpose is not to validate scores. The assessment is simply another perspective that may help us identify blind spots or confirm observations.

Strongest areas

  • Knowledge sharing
  • Collaboration
  • Backlog management
  • Motivation
  • Customer feedback integration

Areas with lower scores

  • Prioritization & saying no
  • Change management
  • Communication strategy
  • OKRs / KPIs

Debrief questions

  1. 1Do these results reflect what we discussed today?
  2. 2What surprises you?
  3. 3What confirms your experience?
  4. 4Is there anything important that is missing from these results?
Do not solve problems here. Only capture insights.

Step 06

Prioritization

10 min

Review

Review all themes collected from:

  • Proud
  • Frustrated
  • Confused
  • Agile Maturity Assessment

Which topics would have the biggest positive impact on our team if we improved them?

Dot voting

Each participant receives 3 votes.

  • Put all votes on one topic.
  • Or spread votes across several topics.
Choose only the top 2 topics, or 3 topics maximum.

Step 07

Action planning

10 min

For each selected topic, complete the template.

Improvement opportunity

What are we trying to improve?

Action

What exactly will we do?

Owner

Who will drive the action?

Target date

When will it be completed?

Success measure

How will we know it worked?

Example

Improvement opportunity
Prioritization clarity
Action
Create a quarterly priorities overview for the team.
Owner
Team Manager
Target date
End of July
Success measure
All team members can explain the team's top three priorities.

Step 08

Closing reflection

5 min

What is one thing you will personally do differently after today's discussion?

Quick round-robin. One sentence per participant.

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