How to Run a Great Online Retrospective

To run a great online retrospective, give people time to connect, set clear meeting etiquette, use real-time feedback tools, sort out the tech in advance, and keep the fundamentals of an agile retro in place. Here are 5 of our own learnings and reflections from when we ran our own retros with our remote teams.

1. Allow time to say hello and goodbye. Even just a few minutes matters, so ask people to sign in a little early or on time. It could start with an icebreaker, but a simple question about how everyone is doing, or asking for a number out of 10, engages everyone early on. Likewise, it’s too easy to press a button that cuts everyone off, so allow time for people to say goodbye at the end of the meeting.
2. Set the etiquette for your remote meetings. This could mean turning on cameras, use of backgrounds, typing in chat for check-in, or how people actually engage in the meeting that day. Online etiquette is real. Imagine if video meetings happened in a face-to-face environment and you’ll immediately see why things like background noise, how to leave the meeting, and how to ask questions and make comments suddenly become very real issues.
3. Use comments and real-time feedback mechanisms. One of the advantages of going digital is that people can brainstorm individually without distraction, vote for ideas independently without bias, and add comments to others’ ideas that could be worth their weight in gold. Rather than being hindered by production blocks, asking people to write down their thoughts as comments can enrich the discussion.
4. Sort out the logistics. Just as you would check the room for your in-person retro to ensure it wasn’t double-booked, that the heating or cooling was on, and that you had the right tools, the same applies to a quick tech check for your remote retro. Get the tools up and running, links ready to go, and have a tech buddy or colleague support this process — you’ll be able to focus more on the conversation than the technology when the time comes. If you are working across time zones, negotiating a day and time that works for most people can be tricky, and it might mean alternating times for fairness or considering asynchronous retrospectives.
5. Don’t forget the basic elements of agile retrospectives. A remote retrospective does not mean that the fundamentals of an agile retrospective are cast aside. Ensuring accountability, a focus on culture and continuous improvement, follow up and follow through, and that people are focused on the retrospective and not trying to solve problems in the same meeting, all continue to apply.