What is the FLAP Retrospective?
The FLAP retrospective is a blend of a futurespective and retrospective that takes into account Future Considerations, Lessons Learned, Accomplishments and Problem Areas that should be taken into the next sprint. It can be a fun and alternative way to engage the team in order to identify which risks and relevant action items.
As good practice, remember to set the stage and ensure that people are reminded that this is not a process of blame, but for identifying potential areas for change. If you have run this retrospective method several times before, you should see greater fidelity of ideas. If there are recurring items, this should be treated as a red flag.
Key components of a FLAP Retrospective activity
Alternative options to try in your FLAP retrospective
- Consider colour coding the notes into specific categories such as process and practices, technology and tools, Scope and schedule, and People and staffing. This can visually and quickly help the team identify if there is a common underlying theme that can be further discussed.
- Future considerations is sometimes also know as future directions so you can use this space to identify areas of innovation, change and experiments that the team may want to try.
- Ideas in the accomplishment section are great ways to give kudos and acknowledge effort.
- You don’t have to stick with the FLAP acronym in terms of order of questioning. It might be worth kicking the meeting off in a more positive framework by starting with accomplishments first. Then share lessons learned and problem areas before moving on to future considerations. This has the effect of ending the meeting with a future forward mind set.
How to run a FLAP Retrospective in TeamRetro
Start your retrospective in a click
Log into TeamRetro and choose your sprint retrospective template.
Discuss the most important things first
You and your team discuss the top voted ideas and can capture deep dive comments. Presentation mode allows you to walk your team through ideas one-by-one and keep the conversation focused.
Review and create actions
Easily facilitate discussion by bringing everyone onto the same page. Create action items, assign owners and due dates that will carry through for review at the next retrospective.
Share the results
Once you have finished your retro, you can share the results and actions with the team. Your retro will be stored so you can revisit them as needed.