Retrospectives that change something
Start, Stop, Continue — then turn observations into owned actions.
Most retrospectives generate warmth and nothing else, because observations never become actions with owners. This template treats the ceremony as a funnel: wide collection first, then ruthless narrowing into a handful of checkbox actions somebody owns.
Running the format
Collect silently first — everyone writes Start, Stop, and Continue items without discussion, so the loudest voice doesn't set the agenda. Read them out, cluster duplicates, then vote or simply pick the two or three that matter most. Everything else is acknowledged and released; a retro that tries to fix twelve things fixes none.
Actions with owners, or it didn't happen
Each chosen item becomes a checkbox action with a name attached: - [ ] Mara automates the staging deploy. Review last retro's actions first, next time — uncompleted actions are data, not failure, but only if they are confronted. Tick them off in Preview as they land, and link the note from the project notes so the follow-through lives where the work does.
Format variations
Glad/sad/mad swaps the emotional register for teams tired of the classic three; keep/drop/try reframes for forward-looking groups. The labels matter less than the funnel — collect wide, narrow hard, assign owners. If the team is just you, the same ritual works solo at half the length: it is a weekly review with sharper questions.
Open this template in Typehall
Open this template in Typehall — it creates a new Retrospective note with Start, Stop, Continue, and Actions sections ready. Nothing is overwritten; your existing notes stay exactly as they are.
Open the notepad and run a retro whose actions survive the meeting.