What is the Witches and Warlocks Retrospective?
Witches and Warlocks is a great example of a fun sprint retrospective for distributed teams for two reasons.
Firstly, like many of our retrospectives, this theme-based retrospective has been deliberately crafted to position team members to adopt an optimistic view of the sprint; that’s not to say the less successful elements are overlooked – far from it!
Secondly, it’s a sprint retrospective idea that shows creativity and fun bring value to a project, and can be embraced without sacrificing productivity, focus or purpose.
Suggested Icebreaker questions for Witches and Warlocks
- What magical object do you wish you owned?
- If you could cast a perfect spell, what would it do?
- What would you use a crystal ball to find out
Retro Rehearsal
Invite your team to rehearse the retro referencing a meme they’ve all seen.
For example, when they look at Success Kid what do they love/want to transform/try to make it/make it relevant again/acknowledge?
Icebreaker Activity
Set the stage with a little magic trick of your own or ask if someone knows a good trick they like to share. Can’t think of one? Here are 25 tricks you can try yourself.
Ideas and Tips for your Witches and Warlocks Retrospective
If you’re looking for imaginative ways to connect with your team and foster well-being, a creative sprint retrospective idea such as the Witches and Warlock template could be what you’re looking for.
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Create a little magic. Set the stage with a little magic trick of your own or ask if someone knows a good trick they like to share. Can’t think of one? Here are 25 tricks you can try yourself.
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Prefer a slightly different ice breaker? Ask each person which spell they would like to have cast in the last sprint. A time rewind spell for more time, the ability to be invisible to avoid interruptions or a sleep spell because of the late nights working to deliver an outcome. These are great ice breakers to help get a sense of the room.
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Make brainstorming anonymous to allow people to feel safe when contributing their thoughts. People will feel more engaged when they feel like they can air what they need to.
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As well as acknowledging the contributions of various team members, the “Owl” category is a subtle way of keeping an eye on team morale and well-being; do the shout-outs reflect an obvious atmosphere of collaboration and gratitude, or is this an area that needs support?
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This retrospective could inspire your team members to step up and create their own theme-based retrospective founded on their own passions and interests. It could be a great way of introducing different team members to the role of facilitator – after all, if they created the retrospective, they are incredibly well placed to deliver it!
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Follow up with an action list that you will check off at the start of the next team retro.
How to run a Witches and Warlocks 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.