5 Sprint Retrospective Hacks to Have More Fun!

While retrospective meetings are meant to be productive and produce ideas for future sprints, it is important to incorporate an element of fun. Whoever said “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy” was completely right. If your retrospective meetings are full of all work and no play, your team will be dull and bored. Bring some life to the meetings! Spice it up!

Below we will look at 5 fresh ideas to have fun retrospective meetings. The next time you hold a sprint retrospective meeting it will be neither dull nor boring with these tips and tricks to make your meetings fun!

Play a team game

Before you write-off this idea as childish, it’s been shown that a team-building game before a meeting increases the togetherness of the team as well as sentiment towards the meeting. We recommend getting your team to play a version of bingo that's been designed for the workplace. We call it Icebreaker Bingo.

As each specially created card is read out, team members check off cards as it pertains to them and the first one to ‘bingo’ wins a prize of sorts (a nice way to motivate the team to play). The prize can be interpreted as you like, it doesn’t need to be a physical item like candy or office supplies - but maybe an extra break, or who gets to choose the office music. Get creative with it; this is where you can really personalize the session to fit the team which will directly correlate to a fun Retrospective meeting

Want a more detailed instruction guide to playing Icebreaker Bingo? Check out the full-depth article on how to play Icebreaker Bingo.

Make your retrospective meeting into a party!

Before you break out the champagne, remember that this is still work, so sticking with soft drinks and snacks is probably better. However, if you’d rather make it into a happy hour type of meeting, then that is completely up to you. People in a party setting feel much more relaxed than when they are in a meeting, so bringing some food and drinks, decorating the room, and even playing some music is a great way to loosen everyone up and get them feeling relaxed. Of course, don’t forget the purpose for which you are there and make sure that you get everything on the agenda done, but have some fun with it!

Give everyone a turn to run the sprint retrospective meeting

Though you may think that the leader, boss, or whatever you want to call it needs to run the meeting, you maybe mistaken. As long as the team members are given an agenda and know what the focus of the meeting should be, then allowing them to run it with their own style and activities can be a great way to get everyone involved. Be sure to give them plenty of time to prepare beforehand!

Use Icebreakers

Play a warm-up game or do an icebreaker before beginning your meeting. This way you will get everyone loosened up and feeling good before the meeting even begins. Yes, even adults enjoy a fun game every now and then. For suggestions, simply look online. There are hundreds of fun icebreakers that everyone enjoys and that will get your team fired up and ready to plan.

Make your Retrospective a game show

Now, this may take quite a bit of planning, but if you want to jazz up your agile retrospective meetings and get everyone involved and having fun, then create a Jeopardy game or a Price is Right. Get creative with it! This can be an excellent way to wrap up a sprint and get some new, fresh ideas for the next one. Not to mention, everyone will love it!

If you are looking for some hacks to make your retrospective meetings more fun, then these are some great ways to do so, and you can also check out various sprint retrospective formats and ideas. Be sure to involve everyone on your team and ensure that no one is getting singled out or left out. The most important thing is to have some fun sprint retrospectives with your team.

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