Tags

, , ,

It’s very easy for SCRUM team to lose interest in retrospectives if it’s the same old  Good, Bad, Ugly or Start, Stop, Continue listings always. So, today I tried this new technique with the SCRUM team at work and it was quite a success.

About the Technique

— It’s called Mad, Sad, Glad.

— Each of these represent an emotion the team members might have gone through during the sprint. So, basically this techniques focusses more on team’s spirit & state of mind rather than the actual work. It’s like talking about the things after highlighting the impact they had.

— Mad represents “Frustration”, things which went wrong. Sad is for “Disappointment”, things which din’t go the way as expected. Glad signifies “Pleasure”

How to drive the Technique??

— Make three columns with the above three emotions as the headings.

— Ask the team to write entries for each of them on Post-Its. Time-box it. Get creative and use different color Post-its for each column!

— Paste everything on the wall.

— Group the related ones together under each column.

— Let every team member talk about the groups and express their opinion.

— Jot down the action points.

Highlights!

— It’s astonishing to see that some’s frustration might be someone else’s disappointment and still more surprising when same things appear under Glad and Sad/Mad column!

— It really fosters lot of communication and  healthy argument/discussion among the team members.

Feedback from the team!!

— Appreciated and enjoyed!

— Grouping doesn’t has to be done by SCRUM Master at the end. When the team members put their Post-its on the wall, they can place the cards next to each other themselves.

It was one of the most participative and longest retros I have attended.