What is a retrospective
A retrospective, also known as an agile retrospective, is a meeting after your company releases a product to the market. Discussions about what transpired during the product’s development cycle and release procedure are the main objectives of the meeting because they reflect on what went well and what could have gone better, the team may apply their learnings to the next development cycle, continuously improving their work methods and output quality.
The Purpose Of a Retrospective
To paraphrase Steve Jobs, “When you innovate, you will inevitably make mistakes.” It is best to acknowledge them as soon as possible and move on to developing your other ideas.” The same principle goes a long way toward explaining why retrospective meetings are crucial to the organization. Even the most talented product teams can make mistakes, whether they are due to oversights or disorganization, misunderstandings, or any other type of “product development failure.”
The thing is, it’s perfectly acceptable to make errors; what matters is that you learn from them. A failure to do so increases the likelihood of reencountering the same problems in the future, which can have serious repercussions. After all, errors influence more than just your staff; they also impact your end-users.
Therefore, companies usually use an agile retrospective to get the product development team together to reflect on the development process, debate what worked and didn’t work throughout the development process, and commit to making improvements in the future.
Although the primary goal in an agile environment is to get a product out the door and into the hands of customers in the shortest amount of time possible, this does not preclude teams from taking a step back after the process to assess what they have accomplished.
Retrospective Format
There are two critical loops in the product development process. One loop is responsible for producing the shippable product. The other looks at how the project was handled and how people worked, both the good and the bad, to develop changes that can be incorporated into the next production loop and implemented. This assists teams in improving over time and delivering consistently superior products to their customers.
During a retrospective discussion, it will be wise to take the teams, and team members who were part of both of these loops should be put together to discuss their own experiences. At this meeting, at least one person from each group should be allowed to express their thoughts on the overall development experience with the rest of the group.
The greater the number of persons who can be accommodated to speak, the better.
The most effective retrospective sessions allow every person involved in a project to express themselves, express how they felt, and offer suggestions for how things could be done better next time. In their own words, marketing, sales, product design, user experience, and operations are a few teams and individuals who may find the theme involved in a retrospective meeting.
Retrospective Favored Outcome
In the same way, as there is no established structure or ‘rules’ for the meeting, there are no right or incorrect outcomes and no right or wrong outcomes. However, at a bare minimum, every retrospective meeting should result in some list or information bank that has information on what went well, what may be improved, and everything that went wrong.
These lists can be vast and exhaustive or brief and succinct; as long as new ideas are gained, the meeting can be considered a success, regardless of how long or short the lists are.
In addition to stating the facts, the conversation should explain why these events occurred. The goal here is to understand how both positive and negative events unfold so that future projects can mimic the beneficial aspects of a project’s process while avoiding the negative aspects.
The meeting should give participants a better understanding of how the project went, what others thought of it, and how they may positively modify their working methods in the future due to their participation.
The cycle of Agile
Simply put – a retrospective is only a part of a bigger whole, and the bigger whole in this subject is the lifecycle of the agile method.
The agile life cycle is meant to keep your project moving forward with specified actions through each iteration.
Depending on your agile framework, the particular procedures will vary. Do you use Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, or another methodology?
However, there are some parallels. The flow of each agile life cycle will be the same, albeit the titles and specifics of each stage will vary per framework.
The entire life cycle of agile is as follows:
- Product Planning: This is your chance to identify your aim, pick your team, and start thinking about general scoping rules for your project. But keep in mind that agile is a flexible and iterative technique.
- Create a product roadmap: After that, you’ll break down your final product into multiple smaller versions that will fill your backlog and act as iteration deliverables.
- Release planning: After filling your backlog with features and smaller products, arrange them and set a release date for each one.
- Sprint planning: You’ll spend some time sprint planning for each feature to ensure everyone understands the team’s sprint goal and what each individual is accountable for In your company.
- Daily meetings: You’ll have short daily briefings for each employee to report their progress during each sprint.
- Agile retrospective: At the end of each iteration, your team will meet to discuss what they’ve accomplished. Retrospectives are an essential element of every project because they allow you to fine-tune your procedures and deliver compelling, functional features at the end of each sprint.
How to Use a Retrospective
The success of a retrospective is dependent on how the meeting is organized and the format in which it is held. In part, this is because the entire value of a retrospective derives from the collective conversation and dialogue; it is not just a case of gathering everyone together and dictating the contents of a PowerPoint presentation.
In retrospective meetings, there is no predetermined structure, formula, or list of rules to follow; companies can conduct them in any way they deem suitable. Although some businesses like to sit back and listen, others prefer to engage in more participatory activities such as thought mapping, anonymous feedback exercises, and visual aids to help them communicate more effectively.
Most of the time, the product management team personnel are in charge of leading retrospectives. In many organizations, these individuals execute the most cross-functional tasks; as a result, they tend to have the most comprehensive and comprehensive understanding of what occurred during a project’s course of action.
On the other hand, sales teams have a considerably more limited perspective that does not consider much that occurs outside of the sales ‘bubble.’
Even though there are no fixed structures or ‘rules’ for these meetings, determine the format that will work best for your business. To give a practical implication, you can take a retrospective meeting to encourage interaction and discourse. If only a few individuals in the room are speaking up, or if many people are saying many things, with no one recording what has been said, you might get less value from the meeting.
Additionally, managers and other higher-ranking officials should keep in mind that the meeting is an open and fair “safe space” to discuss issues and themes that some managers may oppose to their point of view. Higher-ups should resist the temptation to be combative and dismissive to accomplish this.
Bringing in an objective third party who was not involved in the project under discussion is a good idea for any retrospective gathering. This individual can serve as a referee, ensuring that everyone at the meeting is treated equally and allowed to speak.
Finally, while the retrospective allows candid evaluation, it should not be limited to highlighting the negative aspects of the performance. Retrospectives are also an excellent opportunity to recognize team members’ efforts and express gratitude for their contributions.
