The numbers are clear — here’s what your agile retrospectives are missing

When we built Sprintlio as an agile retrospectives tool, it was our belief that if your team didn’t take the time between sprints, releases, iterations, or projects to reflect on learnings, identify opportunities to improve, and be accountable for those next steps — it defeated the purpose of being Agile. And it’s been thousands of agile retros and users later and a few major things have stood out in the metrics. Today, we’re going to focus on one of those trends: Agile retrospectives that rely on whiteboards, sticky notes, or sticky note equivalents dramatically impair the discussion.

Over 66% of all topics in Sprintlio include descriptions like additional text, emojis, links, ordered lists, numbered lists, attachments, visuals, and code snippets. Users have much more to say than a whiteboard or sticky note can allow.

OVER TWO-THIRDS! The majority of things discussed in Sprintlio go beyond a simple title like they would on a whiteboard or sticky note and into something much deeper. But it makes sense. Try fitting a complete thought on a whiteboard as you bump shoulders with the person next to you frantically adding their topic. See how technical your discussion can really get when it needs to fit inside of a sticky note. Heck — try explaining where the process in the last deployment broke down just by describing it and expecting your entire team to know exactly what you mean.

Many teams shift their entire agile retrospective’s prime directive to be fun and engaging. But it really doesn’t matter if the contents of the discussion itself are limited or ineffective. It should be about empowering enlightened and productive discussion and if you’re asking your team to do it with a whiteboard, you’re placing a low ceiling on the potential of the meeting.

Let’s open things up for them and show them how much we value their insights. We can help you get started with a tool built specifically for agile retrospectives in Sprintlio.