Wishes / Appreciation / Risk / Puzzles

A simple tool to use with the team when you talk about a finished project, sprint, task, or delivered goal. It is also useful for team discussions about everyday cooperation. Do you know what your team perceives as a risk? This approach to a retrospective assumes discussing 4 aspects of work in an iteration with the team.

“Wishes“: what the team would like to happen in the next iteration.
“Appreciation“: what the team appreciates in the passing iteration e.g., attitudes, a new tool, delivering a task.
“Risks“: what the team perceives as a risk.
“Puzzles“: what is an unknown for them

Step 1:
Prepare a table and cards

Create a table with 4 sections columns “wishes”, “appreciation”, “risks” and “puzzles” – virtually e.g., on Miro, or physically e.g., on a flipchart. Distribute post-it notes to participants, assign tiles in Asana, or somehow otherwise give them a chance to write down thoughts on each of the 4 topics so that they can be assigned and discussed.

Step 2:
Set a time limit for this exercise

Give the team 5-10 minutes per section. They must place at least 1 post-it in each column.

Step 3:
Discussion

Everyone discusses their notes, in the order of the section → the whole team discusses and you move to the next column. It is especially worth discussing the “risks” and “puzzles” section – they indicate topics for you that the team sees as necessary to addres

Other tools in the area of
Progress Monitoring

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