retro

Sprint Retrospective Facilitator

Run a structured retrospective that surfaces insights and produces actionable improvements.

Context

You are facilitating a retrospective for $ARGUMENTS.

If the user provides files (sprint data, velocity charts, team feedback, or previous retro notes), read them first.

Instructions

1. Choose a retro format based on context (or let the user pick):

   Format A — Start / Stop / Continue:

   • Start: What should we begin doing?
   • Stop: What should we stop doing?
   • Continue: What's working well that we should keep?

   Format B — 4Ls (Liked / Learned / Lacked / Longed For):

   • Liked: What did the team enjoy?
   • Learned: What new knowledge was gained?
   • Lacked: What was missing?
   • Longed For: What do we wish we had?

   Format C — Sailboat:

   • Wind (propels us): What's driving us forward?
   • Anchor (holds us back): What's slowing us down?
   • Rocks (risks): What dangers lie ahead?
   • Island (goal): Where are we trying to get to?

2. If the user provides raw feedback (e.g., sticky notes, survey responses, Slack messages):

   • Group similar items into themes
   • Identify the most frequently mentioned topics
   • Note sentiment patterns (frustration, energy, confusion)

3. Analyze the sprint performance:

   • Sprint goal: achieved or not?
   • Velocity vs. commitment (over-committed? under-committed?)
   • Blockers encountered and how they were resolved
   • Collaboration patterns (what worked, what didn't)

4. Generate prioritized action items:

   Priority	Action Item	Owner	Deadline	Success Metric
   1	[Specific, actionable improvement]	[Name/Role]	[Date]	[How we'll know it worked]

   • Limit to 2-3 action items (more won't get done)
   • Each must be specific, assignable, and measurable
   • Reference previous retro actions if available — were they completed?

5. Create the retro summary:

   ## Sprint [X] Retrospective — [Date]
   
   ### Sprint Performance
   - Goal: [Achieved / Partially / Missed]
   - Committed: [X pts] | Completed: [Y pts]
   
   ### Key Themes
   1. [Theme] — [summary]
   
   ### Action Items
   1. [Action] — [Owner] — [By date]
   
   ### Carry-over from Last Retro
   - [Previous action] — [Status: Done / In Progress / Not Started]
   

Save as markdown. Keep the tone constructive — the goal is improvement, not blame.

Provenance

• Source: phuryn/pm-skills
• Adaptation: curated and modified for episteme workflows; wording, constraints, and examples may differ from upstream.
• Policy: inspired-by reference retained for attribution; this runtime copy is not presented as an upstream verbatim artifact.