Templates · Team & mood
Energy Levels
Reads the sprint as a battery, what charged people and what drained them, and how the team's energy moved along the way.
- Fully charged What gave you energy and kept you going
- Medium power Steady but unremarkable — the sprint neither lifted nor drained you
- Low battery What exhausted you or drained your motivation
- Sprint energy How the team's energy moved across the sprint as a whole
What it is
A battery gauge with three levels, and one more column for the whole. Fully charged takes what gave people energy, Low battery what exhausted them or drained their motivation, and Medium power what neither lifted nor drained them. Sprint energy asks a different question: how the team’s energy moved across the sprint as a whole.
Goal
The team knows what recharges it and what wears it down, sees whether it ends its sprints with something left, and changes one thing so that the next sprint costs less.
When to use it
During a long effort with no end in sight, after a deadline that asked for extra hours, or when you notice signs of tiredness: shorter answers, quieter meetings, small mistakes. The picture is impersonal enough for people to admit that they are tired without having to say that they are unhappy.
When to pick another format
The format shows that something drains the team, less well why: to dig into the causes, take Fishbone Analysis. If the mood matters more than the fatigue, Happy, Meh, Sad asks for the same three levels as feelings. If people lack time more than energy, try Time: Added, Stolen, Restored.
How to run it
- Fully charged. Ask what gave you energy and kept you going.
- Medium power. Ask what was steady but unremarkable. A full column is no problem in itself; one that grows from sprint to sprint is.
- Low battery. Ask what exhausted you or took your motivation away. The card gives the cause, not the symptom.
- Sprint energy. Ask each person for one card on the curve of the sprint: where it started, where it dipped, how it ended.
Read Sprint energy first: it tells whether the team ended lower than it began, and when the level dropped. Then group and vote in Low battery, and take the top drains with one question: can we remove it, reduce it, or share it differently? Record what the team decides as action items with an owner.
Columns
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Fully charged | What gave you energy and kept you going |
| Medium power | Steady but unremarkable — the sprint neither lifted nor drained you |
| Low battery | What exhausted you or drained your motivation |
| Sprint energy | How the team's energy moved across the sprint as a whole |
To start a retrospective from this template, see Create a retro.