Großartige Online-Retrospektiven für Remote- und verteilte Teams

As predicted some time ago and recently catalysed, the popularity of remote working continues apace.

Whether partially or fully remote, the benefits of such a workforce are hard to ignore –

increased productivity and reach
decreased costs
access to a diverse talent pool
better retention and employee satisfaction

Within the context of agile, the retrospective is critical to the success of a team. Angesichts der zunehmenden Beliebtheit einer Remote-Belegschaft ist es daher nur logisch, dass es für einen Iterationsmanager oder Scrum Master wichtig ist, eine Online-Retrospektive genauso effektiv zu moderieren, wie er es persönlich tun würde.

With this in mind, we’ve put together the following to share our tried and true tips for running effective online retrospectives.

What makes an effective online retrospective?

Hier bei TeamRetro praktizieren wir, was wir predigen, und führen regelmäßig Retrospektiven durch, um unser Produkt und unser Team zu verbessern.

From our perspective, regardless of the medium of their delivery, an effective retrospective has the following characteristics –

has a regular cadence
operates with a shared understanding of what’s expected of the team
allows all voices to be heard
occurs in a safe, judgement-free space
adheres to the allocated time
is easily and concisely documented
supports team morale
delivers a clear set of actions for the next sprint, and a shared understanding as to who is responsible for their delivery

Ensuring these outcomes are delivered in an online environment boils down to two key elements

An online environment supportive of retrospectives
Appropriate online facilitation techniques

Here’s how to do it.

Step 1 – Prepare the online environment (Set the Virtual Stage)

Consider the space in which you and your team run your face-to-face retrospectives –

You may be using a whiteboard with team members taking it in turns to stand up and add to it, or perhaps sticking post-its onto a board.
Participants may offer a quick explanation or comment as they add each of their points, before the team discusses things more broadly. If an impasse is reached, it’s possible things are talked through until a consensus is reached.
It’s possible you know it’s time to wrap up when you see people heading for lunch, or hear a knock on the meeting room door.

Clearly, while the above may work for those of the team based in the office, the same cannot be said for those working remotely; the above obviously needs to be translated into a virtual space. While this may require some investment, an environment that supports both co-located and remote participants equally, is a valuable risk mitigation treatment on many levels.

Choose your online retrospective tool

Online retrospective tools have been developed with both remote and co-located teams in mind, and offer an organized process for running a retrospective.

There are a myriad of tools but overall they should be designed to –

make facilitation easy
secure, fast and reliable
address common retrospective anti-patterns
shape a safe, equitable space
easily capture inputs from all participants
record and track action items
gauge meeting effectiveness
present ideas one by one to ensure everyone is focused
augments with your video conferencing tool
Integrate action items into your workflow

Choose your communication tool

Will you be using video conferencing, teleconferencing, or will you be relying on VoIP?

The mechanism your team uses to complement your online retrospective tool will inform the facilitation techniques used to support the retrospective process itself.

Zum Beispiel nutzen wir Videokonferenzen und ein internes Nachrichtensystem wie Zoom und Slack, um unsere Echtzeit-Online-Retrospektiven zu unterstützen.

Our screens are on and microphones are unmuted (this means that our facilitator can see we are engaged).
From time to time, links to documents and other files are shared on a dedicated and secure messaging channel.
The scrum master may share their screen throughout the retrospective as needed.

Consider a dry run

Retrospektiven für eine Remote-Belegschaft spontan durchzuführen, ist sehr schwierig; ohne die Annehmlichkeiten der gemeinsamen Standort kann es schwierig sein, Last-Minute-Entscheidungen zu kommunizieren, die Scrum Master-Rolle zu delegieren, Zeiten zu ändern usw. These things are also incredibly frustrating and isolating for the team.

The importance of planning and following through cannot be understated. While some discipline may be needed to deliver this, the return (saved time, focused retrospective, team alignment) will be worth it.

In order to ensure the virtual space is suitable to facilitate retrospectives, it’s helpful to ensure –

all participants know how to use the technology, so a dry run helps.
the technology works, so home VPNs and low connectivity can be addressed beforehand.
there is an easy and agreed process for people to follow.

The simplest way to achieve this is to rehearse or walk through a retrospective. Auf diese Weise kann dein Team zeigen, dass sowohl das Retrospektiven-Tool als auch die Kommunikationsmechanismen funktionieren, und sie wissen, wie man sie benutzt!

Vor deiner Retrospektive

Build cadence, by locking in a regular time slot in everyone’s schedule. Ensure all team members have made the retrospective a priority by giving them plenty of time to organize their commitments (kids etc) and double check time zones are aligned.

Draft a team agreement; these are the ‘house rules’ for the retrospective meeting itself, and a worthwhile exercise to do with your team. This aligns to building the team culture and how people interact with each other. Things such as “we won’t multitask” (which is always tempting to do during internal virtual meetings), or “always laugh at jokes, even the bad ones” could be included. The agreement isn’t written in stone, and can be updated at any time.

Choose a template that will support the needs of your retrospective and team. Wenn du nach einer Möglichkeit suchst, deinem Team zu helfen, Herausforderungen neu zu formulieren, könnte die Netball-Retrospektive das Richtige für dich sein; wenn dein Team gut mit einem direkten Ansatz arbeitet, hilft die Working Not Working Retrospektive, direkt auf den Punkt zu kommen.

Confirm the options you wish to apply to your template. Das Hinzufügen eines ROTI kann helfen, die Effektivität des Meetings zu beurteilen. Wenn die Teilnehmer Reaktionen, Kommentare oder GIFs hinzufügen können, erhöht dies die Beteiligung und fügt der Retrospektive ein Element des Spaßes hinzu.

Consider the psychological safety of the space. If your team is new, looking to build up trust, or you wish to ensure personalities don’t influence the perception of ideas, having participants contribute anonymously or use an alias may help level the playing field.

Share the template to counteract recency bias. By sending the template out at the start of the sprint with the brainstorming page open, team members can add notes whenever they wish during the sprint.

(If it hasn’t already happened) circulate the action items from the last retrospective in order to remind the team of what was previously agreed upon. This will ensure no one will feel they are being ambushed during the retrospective itself.

Step 2 – Run the retrospective (Collect Data)

Warm up with an icebreaker, a simple activity, undertaking, or game that helps people foster connections and build rapport.

Then kick off with an overview of the retrospective to ensure everyone is on the same page. This can include quickly running through the team agreement and the process steps that make up the retrospective.

Keep an eye on the time, this means staring on time and keeping an eye on the clock. Timeboxing is a great way to do this.

Maximize engagement throughout the retrospective with –

permission-based progression (questions such as ‘is everyone happy to move on?’, ‘can we head to the next step?’)
requesting clarification of ideas and responses
checking in with quieter participants

Leverage the online retrospective tool to support the process and don’t be afraid to go back a step. The tool is there so there’s no need to remember what comes next, that’s not to say you can’t back track if needed.

Step 3 – Look for ways to improve (Decide what to do)

Nachdem die wichtigsten Punkte priorisiert und besprochen wurden, ist ein Schlüsselelement der Retrospektive und des Agilen, die nächsten Schritte zur Verbesserung von Prozessen, zur Steigerung des Werts, zur Lösung von Problemen oder einfach zum Experimentieren festzulegen.

Give the team the space and time to come up with potential solutions and proposed actions that the others can deliberate on.

Capture action items as they are proposed, confirming they have been recorded correctly at the time.

Review all action items (including those outstanding) and tick off those that have been delivered. Always align an action item to a date and person responsible for their delivery. This is a good time to talk about things that might be blocking an action or any impediments that might slow it down.

Schritt 4 – Abschluss (Retrospektive beenden)

Fasse die wichtigsten besprochenen Bereiche, die vereinbarten Maßnahmen, Datum und Uhrzeit der nächsten Retrospektive zusammen und bedanke dich bei allen für die Teilnahme.

Teile die Zusammenfassung der Retrospektive zusammen mit den vereinbarten Maßnahmen.

Verfolge die Fortschritte mit dem Team, um die Verantwortlichkeit zu gewährleisten und Hindernisse zu beseitigen.

Richtig durchgeführt, können Remote-Retrospektiven deinem Team einen unglaublichen Mehrwert bringen.

Ready to run your retro?

Die Verwendung eines Online-Retrospektiven-Tools wie TeamRetro ermöglicht es dem Scrum Master oder Meeting-Moderator, sich auf die Bedürfnisse des Teams zu konzentrieren, anstatt auf die Mechanik der Online-Retrospektive. Ideas and comments can be captured instantly and prioritized for discussions. Actions can be tracked, shared or integrated and followed up at the next meeting. Each person in the team has an equal opportunity to contribute in a psychologically safe space and can be time boxed to ensure everyone stays on task.

TeamRetro kümmert sich um den Prozess, damit sich die Teilnehmer auf Gespräche und zukünftige Maßnahmen konzentrieren können. There’s no need to take our word for it – you can t est drive a range of retrospectives or sign up for a free trial (without a credit card).

Have a great retro!