Templates · Themed & fun

Game of Thrones

Four pictures from the saga to review the team's strengths, its current problems, ways to get better and the threats on their way.

What it is

The team as a realm in the saga. The castle is its stronghold, what it is great at. The hole is where it is stuck today, its current issues and problems. The wall is what it could build to become a better team. The White Walkers are what is coming from the other side: the potential risks and challenges.

Goal

Strengths to lean on, problems to fix now, improvements to build and risks to watch, and above all a link between them: which part of the wall the team builds first, and against what.

When to use it

It suits a review wider than one sprint, a release or a quarter, and a team with something on the horizon: a deadline, a reorganisation, a dependency on others. It needs a group that enjoys the saga, or at least knows it.

When to pick another format

With people who do not know the story, Sailboat covers much the same ground with a picture that needs no explaining. In a formal setting, with stakeholders for instance, a SWOT Analysis asks about strengths and threats under their own names. When the threats are the whole subject, take a Pre-mortem.

How to run it

1. The castle: ask what the team is great at.
2. The hole: ask for the current issues and problems, the ones that hurt today.
3. The wall: ask what could make this a better team. These cards are proposals, things to build.
4. The White Walkers: ask for the potential risks and challenges. What separates this column from the hole is time: the hole is now, the White Walkers have not arrived.

Group the cards, then read the wall beside the two columns around it: which proposal gets the team out of a hole, which one holds back a threat? Vote on the wall with that in mind and turn the first cards into actions. A threat with no wall in front of it deserves at least a name: who keeps an eye on it.

Columns

To start a retrospective from this template, see Create a retro.