What is the Sailboat Retrospective template?
Use the sailboat exercise to engage your team in the retro session and evaluate the previous sprint. Collaboratively figure out what works best for you and your teammates by envisioning the last sprint as a wind-powered sailboat. Point out on handy sticky notes what pushed your project forward, what risks held it back, and vote on actions that went well during the sprint to continue doing them.
Uncover valuable information during the retro session to improve your processes or make incremental changes. Prevent siloed communication by using the video chat feature on Whiteboards and treating retros as a team-building exercise. Remind everyone you are on the same sailboat navigating in the same direction.
What are the benefits of the Sailboat Retrospective template?
Thanks to Sailboat Retrospective, you can:
- Spot potential risks and obstacles for your sprint and come up with a way to address them before they evolve into major issues.
- Represent visually which “anchors” keep your “boat” in one place and prevent your sprint from moving forward.
- Identify what actions “propel your sailboat” and help you determine what went well in your previous sprint.
- Specify both long and short-term objectives for your sprint using the haven metaphor.
- Lead your team towards continuous improvement by identifying what is helping and hurting your projects, timelines, and deadlines.
How to use the Sailboat Retrospective template in a few steps?
- Open the Sailboat Retrospective template on a new board or add it to an already existing one.
- Invite your team to the board by sending an email invitation or sharing the board URL.
- Enable the audio and video chat on the board and explain the purpose of this meeting to your team members. Decide together on the timeframe you want to reflect on and start the collaboration session.
- Set up the timer for a few minutes and start writing down the answers to questions available on the template: what helped you move forward, what made you feel good, what held you back, and what the risks are.
- Invite all team members for an open discussion when the time’s up. Go through all sticky notes and decide together what you would like to continue or stop doing in the future.
