Team Retro at a glance
Create a Team Retro slide
1
Add the slide
Click New slide in the editor and choose Team Retro. Type “Team Retro” in the search bar of the slide type picker to find it fast.
2
Pick a template
Under Columns, choose a Template: Happy / Sad / Confused, Start / Stop / Continue or Mad / Sad / Glad. Each template gives you three columns, one per word. Happy / Sad / Confused is the default.
3
Rename, add or remove columns (optional)
Type your own name into any column (up to 40 characters), for example Went well, Didn’t go well and Kudos. Click Add column for a fourth, or the delete icon to remove one; a retro keeps between 2 and 4. Choosing a different template replaces the columns with that template’s.
4
Set votes per person
Under Votes per person, choose how many votes each participant gets, from 1 to 10. The default is 3. For a short list of themes, 3 votes is usually enough; for a long list, give more.
Present a Team Retro slide
Click Preview in the top header to try the presenter screen and the participant phone side by side, then present. Participants join at the access code on screen. Only you move the room between stages. Click Next and Back at the bottom of the canvas, click a stage in the step bar, or press Enter for the next stage and B to go back. Each button names the stage it leads to, such as Next: Group.1
Ideas
Participants pick a column on their phone, type an idea (up to 200 characters) and tap Add idea. Ideas appear in their column on the big screen as they arrive, with no names. Each person can edit or delete their own ideas while this stage is open, and you can remove any idea with the x on its card. Moving on closes the stage to new ideas; if you click Back to Ideas, it opens again.
2
Group
Only you group ideas, on the big screen. Click ideas to select them and click Group (or press G), or drag one idea onto another idea or an existing group. Click Move to group to add the selection to a group you picked, and Ungroup (or U) to split one up; dragging an idea onto Not grouped also takes it out of its group. Type a name into each group (up to 40 characters). Press Esc to clear your selection. Ideas you leave alone vote as a group of one. Phones show the groups as you build them and the message “The host is grouping ideas”.
3
Vote
Everyone votes on their phone from the same number of votes, as set in Votes per person. They tap + and - beside a group to add or take back a vote, and can put more than one vote on the same group. Phones show how many votes are left. The big screen shows the groups and reminds the room that totals stay hidden until voting ends.
4
Actions
The big screen splits in two: Top groups, ranked by votes, beside Action items. Expand a group to see its ideas. Type what the team will do, optionally choose an owner, and click Add (or press Enter). Participants see the same ranked groups with their vote counts on their phones and can add action items too.
What participants see on their phones
Owners for action items
The Owner (optional) field offers the people who joined with a name. Action items you add and ones participants add both show the owner’s name, with their emoji when they have one. Each participant can add up to 10 action items, and a slide holds up to 50 in total. Only you can remove an action item.Team Retro settings
Ideas for using Team Retro
Sprint and project reviews
- Sprint retrospective — keep the Happy / Sad / Confused template, group the ideas that overlap, and vote for the two or three themes worth acting on.
- Project post-mortem — use Start / Stop / Continue so every idea points at a change.
Teams and workshops
- Team health check — rename the columns to Energising, Draining and Missing and let the room vote on what to fix first.
- Workshop feedback — close a session with Mad / Sad / Glad, then assign one owner per follow-up before people leave.