A timeline retrospective is a method used by Agile teams to review and reflect on a specific period of work, such as a sprint, project, or release.
This approach involves creating a visual timeline that captures significant events, milestones, and challenges encountered during the period under review.
Additionally, an inbuilt mood tracker is integrated into the timeline to capture the emotional state of the team at various points, providing insights into morale and team dynamics.
The timeline retrospective helps teams to understand their journey, identify patterns, and gain insights for future improvements, while the mood tracker highlights how the team’s emotional health influenced their performance and collaboration.
How to use a Timeline Retrospective with Mood Tracker
- Before the meeting, prepare the timeline with the start and end dates, an overview of what happened, and pre-populate any key events.
- Introduce the goal and structure of the session.
- Ask the team to use sticky notes, tokens and images to plot what happened in the sprint and whether it was a good, neutral or bad thing.
- Review the timeline and walk through it together – highlight opportunities for improvement.
- Use the mood tracker to discuss the impact of morale and team dynamics on what happened in the sprint.
- Brainstorm and vote on the top 3 actions to take out of the retro.
