Baseball Retrospective

Review your sprint's home runs, strikes and curveballs.

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Home Runs

What were some great outcomes?

Successfully launched the new feature ahead of schedule.
Our customer satisfaction scores hit an all-time high this quarter
The new onboarding process reduced training time by 50%
Strikes

What did we miss?

We could have communicated the deployment schedule better
Missed including QA team in initial planning sessions
Documentation updates fell behind sprint work
Curveballs

What was tricky?

The sudden requirement change threw off our sprint planning
Unexpected server downtime affected our testing schedule
Three team members got sick during critical project phase
Batter Up

What should be our next play?

Let's implement weekly knowledge sharing sessions
Create a backup plan for critical system dependencies
Schedule regular cross-team sync meetings

What is the Baseball Retrospective?

The Baseball Retrospective borrows the language of America's favorite pastime to help your team look back on its work. Home Runs are the big successes. Strikes are the missed opportunities. Curveballs are the unexpected challenges that threw you off, and Batter Up is the next play: the actions you'll take into the next sprint. Most people know the basic terms, so the metaphor needs little explanation, and it gives the session a lighter feel without losing focus. Calling a miss a strike makes it easier to raise than calling it a failure. Separating strikes (things you could have done better) from curveballs (things that came at you) also helps the team see which problems it controls. It works well for teams who enjoy sports analogies, or any team that wants a change from its regular retrospective. If some people don't follow baseball, a one-line explanation of each topic is enough.

Baseball retrospective format

Home Runs

What were some great outcomes?

Home runs are the major successes. Ask people to celebrate individual and team wins of any size, and to say what made each one work so the team can repeat it.

Strikes

What did we miss?

Strikes are missed opportunities or places where the team fell short. Treat them as things to learn from, and look for patterns and systemic causes over individual mistakes.

Curveballs

What was tricky?

Curveballs are unexpected challenges, from inside or outside the team, that made the work harder. Talk through how the team responded and how it could prepare for a similar pitch next time.

Batter Up

What should be our next play?

This forward-looking topic is about the next play. Ask for specific, achievable suggestions, then help the team rank them by impact and by how easily it can act on them.

When to use this retrospective

  • When you want a retrospective that the sports fans on your team will enjoy
  • After a major project milestone or release, to review how the team performed
  • When your regular retrospective format has gone stale
  • When you want to separate the misses the team controlled from the surprises it didn't
  • When morale is low and a lighter format would help people open up

Suggested icebreaker questions

  • If your last sprint was a baseball game, what position would you have played and why?
  • What's your favorite sports memory that taught you something about teamwork?

Want a warm-up your team plays, not just answers out loud? Browse free icebreakers →

Ideas and tips for your retrospective meeting

  • Keep the metaphor simple. Stick to the four core terms and don't force every baseball phrase to fit
  • Baseball visuals or sound effects can set the mood if your team enjoys them
  • Rotate who opens each topic so everyone gets a turn to lead the discussion
  • Give people a quiet minute in the dugout to think before they share
  • Keep a scorecard of action items and check it at the next retrospective
  • Explain each term in a sentence so people who don't follow baseball aren't left out

Frequently asked questions

What is a Baseball Retrospective?
It's a retrospective format that uses baseball terms to structure the conversation: Home Runs for successes, Strikes for missed opportunities, Curveballs for unexpected challenges and Batter Up for next steps.
When should I use a Baseball Retrospective?
Use it after a sprint or major milestone, with teams who enjoy sports analogies, or when your usual format needs a change.
How long does a Baseball Retrospective take?
Usually 45 to 60 minutes. That covers adding ideas to the four topics, grouping and voting, then agreeing on actions.
What's the difference between strikes and curveballs?
Strikes are opportunities the team missed or things it could have done better. Curveballs came from outside the plan, like a sudden requirement change or a server outage, so the question is how to prepare for them next time.
Do you need to know baseball to take part?
No. Each of the four terms takes a sentence to explain, and the prompt on each topic makes clear what goes where.

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