This is a fun retrospective that gets people thinking and talking about the team’s recent work.
Items Needed
- Sticky notes
- Markers
- Whiteboard where you can draw the above Truths/Wishes/Lies diagram
Steps
- Pass out sticky notes and markers making sure everyone gets at least 3 sticky notes.
- Ask folks to write down at least three things about the last sprint:
- Two True things (“Kudos” can go here!!)
- One Lie …or… a Wish
- (Folks can write more if they want)
- Ask folks to exchange items.
- This can be a simple as everyone puts items face down in the middle of the table and mixing them up.
- Or, even better, for each card everyone finds a random teammate with which to exchange.
- The important part is, everyone should wind up with none of their own cards.
- One by one, each person stands at the board, and, for each card, one at a time:
- The team member reads the card and they facilitate the team in deciding whether the statement is the “Truth,” a “Wish,” or a “Lie.”
- This should naturally elicit some thinking on the team’s part as to what the card is getting at.
- Card is placed in the appropriate area of the board (which, in some cases, straddles a line.)
- The Scrum Master ensures that the discussion goes deep enough to discover root causes, root impediments, future risks, improvements, and action items.
- The team member reads the card and they facilitate the team in deciding whether the statement is the “Truth,” a “Wish,” or a “Lie.”
I adapted and started using this retro in April of 2017 after reading this post from Scrummando.