The Art of the Retrospective

Last Thursday night, on the evening before a long-needed day off, I found myself on Slack. Normally, I try to place some distance between myself and work with an impending holiday, but the questions were worth staying online to answer — they were from a new member of our team who was about to run his first project retrospective and seeking guidance on how to do it well.

I offered my ideas of what makes a good retro (in broad strokes) and tried to find a few articles to send his way that could provide some additional color and insight. Surprisingly, I didn’t find many I liked. I…