Templates · Themed & fun
Halloween: Spooky Sprint
A whole retrospective in costume, with five columns that are five steps, from setting the scene to closing the session.
- Halloween treats! Set the scene
- Ghost stories! Gather data
- Trick or treat! Generate insights
- Pick a door! Decide what to do
- Spook of the sprint! Close the retrospective
What it is
On most boards the columns are kinds of card, filled side by side. Here they are the steps of a retrospective, taken one after the other, each in a Halloween costume: setting the scene, gathering data, generating insights, deciding what to do and closing.
Goal
A session with a beginning, a middle and an end on a single board. The team leaves knowing what happened, what it means and what it will do.
When to use it
The sprint that ends around Halloween, with a team that likes to play. It also serves a new team that is learning what a retrospective is made of.
When to pick another format
The titles name steps, not questions: they do not tell people what to write, so the facilitator has to bring a question for each column. For a team that wants to open the board and start writing, take Went well, To improve, Action ideas. At the end of the year, the seasonal board is the Christmas Retro.
How to run it
Prepare one question per column, and open the columns one at a time. The questions below are examples.
- Halloween treats! Set the scene with something light: one card each, the sprint as a sweet or as a costume.
- Ghost stories! Gather data. Ask what happened, and what haunted the sprint: the bug that came back, the task that would not end. No explanations yet.
- Trick or treat! Generate insights. Read the stories and ask why. Which were tricks, and what caused them? Which were treats, and what made them possible?
- Pick a door! Decide what to do. Each card is a door the team could open, a change to try.
- Spook of the sprint! Close the retrospective with a last card each: the moment, the bug or the colleague that most deserves the title.
The actions come out of the fourth column: group the doors, vote, and write an action with an owner for each door the team chooses to open.
Columns
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Halloween treats! | Set the scene |
| Ghost stories! | Gather data |
| Trick or treat! | Generate insights |
| Pick a door! | Decide what to do |
| Spook of the sprint! | Close the retrospective |
To start a retrospective from this template, see Create a retro.