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What is this article about?
While looking for a format that could be used well for a remote retro, I had the idea that the desired functions could also be mapped via a Trello board.
With Trello, you can create new cards ad hoc and everyone who has opened the board sees the changes without a refresh. You can let off steam with stickers, pictures and giphys and you can also vote via a power-up.
Preparation
For the retro I created a new board and invited all team members to join. I did this at least a week before the retro to have some time so that colleagues could register if necessary and get familiar with the tool.
For the board, I thought about which lists I wanted to create during the event, but didn't create them yet for the sake of clarity.
80% of my team had already worked with Trello and knew most of the features. On the day of the Retro, I briefly touched on what I planned to do later during the Daily, so that everyone could try out for themselves whether everything worked as desired in the app or on the notebook. That was very helpful.
We only had one colleague with us at the first Retro who didn't get everything working right away. Understandably, he was a little unmotivated. So it helps extremely to invest some time in advance in order to have everyone actively present at the Retro later on.
We used the Power Up features "Giphy" and "Voting". Simple images can be placed on the cards via the attachment.
Implementation
trello01
For the check-in I created a list with the heading "Your Giphy for the Sprint". Everyone now had the task to create a matching card with included Giphy. There was a maximum of 5 minutes for this. I then went through the cards from top to bottom and the creator briefly told something about his selected image.
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Gather Data
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The team now had 8 minutes to create cards corresponding to the lanes.
We then went through these cards individually to briefly introduce the topics and clarify questions of understanding.
Voting
Depending on the number of cards or the time available, the team members then had "n" votes, which they could assign via the "Voting" power-up.
trello04
I sorted the cards with votes into a new lane "To be discussed", descending by the number of votes. We started talking about the card with the most votes. When we felt we had enough, we moved on to the next card. Here we could also set time limits.
Action Items
If in the course of the discussion on a topic an action item arose, I created it in a new lane "Actions". Shortly before the end we went through these items again. "Are we really hoping to get something out of this?" "Who will make sure the measure is implemented?" "Which of the measures is most important to us?". My goal here was to take as few measures as possible so that they would have a higher chance of being implemented. There should have been three pieces, maximum four.
Conclusion
Since this was the first time I had done this retro, there was a feedback lane at the end where each team member could give input via a card. The format was well received, so we are now sharing it on the blog.
Materials
Remote retro doesn't require any offline materials. However, you should have a room with a large TV/beamer for the board, as well as good video or phone tooling to include colleagues who can't be there at the time.
Feedback
Do you have any additions to this format? Then get in touch. We appreciate any kind of feedback!
* The content from the images has been created arbitrarily for this article and does not correspond to the actual content of Retro.
** To our own Otto readership: Trello is hosted in a US cloud and is to be treated according to our guidelines regarding data sensitivity.
5Comments
- n1try20.12.2018 19:58 Clock
Ich selbst bin nicht daran beteiligt, aber Freunde. Ich bin mir sicher, dass die sich über Tester freuen würden. Du kannst ja mal https://twitter.com/thebitionaire kontaktieren 😉
- sschoenebein20.12.2018 18:09 Clock
Habe das Tool gleich mal ausprobiert. Man merkt aber, dass es noch Beta Modus hat. Bist Du daran beteiligt? Falls ja, komme gerne auf mich zu, wenn ihr noch Tester braucht :-)
- Christian14.12.2018 11:41 Clock
Coole Idee! Wir arbeiten in einem Vor-Ort-Team, nehmen also lieber Zettel oder Whiteboard. Schreibt gern häufiger über Eure Retro-Methoden!
- n1try20.12.2018 16:51 Clock
Schaut euch mal https://scrumlr.io an - ein kleines Tool, gemacht für remote Retros 😉
- JO01.02.2019 17:20 Clock
Wir haben eine Remote Retro mit dem Tool: https://www.teamretro.com/ durchgeführt. Es gibt 3 kostenfreie Retros danach wird das Tool kostenpflichtig. Ich finde das Design sehr gut gemacht und leicht verständlich. Wir haben es mit 12 Personen getestet und uns zusätzlich per Skype verbunden.
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Stefanie Schönebein
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