The Hot Air Balloon is a hybrid retrospective / futurespective that looks at what is helping / hindering the team and what positive / negative things are on the horizon.
Assessing progress
In the middle of a project
The Hot Air Balloon retrospective is a reflective exercise, asking a team to raise and discuss what is helping or hindering them on their project.
It combines backward-looking reflection into recent past activities, as well as forward-looking at what is coming up for the team.
The hot air and sandbags represent what has been driving or holding back the team, while the storm clouds and sunshine represent potential positive and negative events on the horizon.
This helps a team think of their recent work as a part of the whole project, not just in isolation. The team think about how to improve based on their last sprint, but also look ahead to identify risks.
Time needed: 75-90 minutes.
To extend this exercise, ask the team what stops them from floating into space - and is floating higher always better? If the sandbags are too heavy or the storm clouds force the hot air balloon to make an emergency landing, how would the team take off again and resume course?