Learning from success – and learning from failures. This is always an important concern for HR professionals. The retrospective method is perfectly suited for this purpose: reflecting on what happened in order to learn for the future. But maybe the multitude of different variants is overwhelming you? Today, we present two methods for digital retrospectives that always work!
How does a good retrospective work?
Important: A retrospective is always about "looking back at the past" (retrospective = reflective). This also means: Concrete solutions are not the goal of a retrospective. Many know retrospectives from the Scrum model, which was originally used in software development.
In the meantime, HR professionals from all areas have begun to hold a retrospective meeting in their professional everyday life to get a common picture of a specific situation or a longer project. And to learn from it what should be done in the same way, differently, or no longer in the future.
This is extremely important for every retrospective:
A good moderation
A strict timekeeper
Clear communication: What exactly should be reflected on?
Focus on observation rather than problem-solving
How well do retrospectives work digitally? Quite simply!
Not only since 2020 have we at blink.it increasingly worked digitally or remotely. Of course, not everything can be implemented online 1:1. However, the retrospective is a method that works perfectly well digitally. The New Work experts at AllesRoger have written a great article about this: How to conduct your retrospectives online. They recommend the tools whiteboard.com or mural.co to work together efficiently in a digital space.
We at blink.it use Google Docs as a tool for digital retrospectives. It works as follows:
The moderator creates a document in Google Drive in advance.
All participants think about the categories beforehand – this saves time in the meeting.
During the meeting, everyone takes turns filling in their key points in the created document (ideally via copy & paste) – and explains them briefly.
The retrospective is a method that works wonderfully "online-only". Ideally, all participants are prepared and can present their points in turn.
(Way too many) Different variants of the retrospective
Okay, you probably understand the purpose of retrospectives. But if you search the internet for the keyword "retrospective", you will find at least ten different variants. Here are a few examples:
Help, too many choices! Which type of retrospective is suitable for you and your team? Honestly: It doesn’t make much difference – they all help to highlight the essentials of what has happened. Nevertheless, you have to make a decision, so we will present two very different retrospectives that have proven effective for us:
Start-Stop-Keep: The future-oriented retrospective
What do I want to talk about? - The “focused” retrospective
When do we recommend which method and why? You will find out now!
1. Start - Stop - Keep: The “future-oriented” retrospective
This is how Start-Stop-Keep works
All participants answer the following categories:
Start: What should be newly done in the future?
Stop: What should be avoided in the future?
Keep / Continue: What should continue in the future?
Thus, the Start-Stop-Keep method is not a typical retrospective: Because you judge based on what has happened – but very much focused on the future. TU Berlin has a PDF template for Start-Stop-Continue that you can use.
Advantages of Start-Stop-Keep
The categories are very clear and usually easy to answer. This way, the method can quickly determine how the journey will continue.
Examples: When do we use Start-Stop-Keep?
The method is great for recurring meetings without a specific trigger. Typically, there is no high conflict potential involved. We at blink.it primarily use Start-Stop-Keep in our quarterly meetings between (one) employee + manager – the One-on-Ones.
2. What do I want to talk about? – The “focused” retrospective
This is how the focused retrospective works
The categories in this variant of the retrospective are:
What happened?
What was good?
What was bad?
What do I want to talk about?
This looks like this, for example:
Advantages of the focused retrospective
The ultimate advantage of why we at blink.it prefer this type of retrospective: The need for discussion is particularly clearly articulated. In many other retrospectives, it’s all about gathering different perspectives. This also happens here, but the remaining time is used for a discussion about the most pressing points – with strict time limits to remain efficient! Full focus on the greatest need for discussion.
Examples: When do we use the focused retrospective?
Basically, the "focused" retrospective is suitable for many purposes. We recommend it in all situations where at least one participant feels that there is a need for discussion – and you want to articulate exactly what it is about. So, for example:
For projects that run over several months (in between and/or at the end)
After emotionally charged situations
After introducing new methods or tools
5 Tips: Even more efficiency in (digital) retrospectives
These have been our two top retrospectives that have proven very effective. And both work perfectly digital! To conclude, we want to reflect on all our retrospectives and present our 5 biggest insights:
Create a template that can be reused.
Carefully consider whether participants should prepare – this has generally proven effective for us.
Don’t start with the negative: “What went wrong” should be the last category.
Be a strict timekeeper: Don’t let discussions drag on.
Too much need for discussion? Move solution proposals to a new meeting.
... So you can learn from our mistakes and start with efficient and focused retrospectives right away! 😎
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Learning materials and guides
Did you know? Besides the template from this blog article, we have a lot of other materials available for download, free online courses, and more!
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