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| Criterion | ![]() Agile Starfish Retrospective | ![]() Agile Mad Sad Glad | ![]() Operations Process Mapping |
|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When improvement options need to be sorted more finely than just start and stop, it brings observations into clear kinds of action. This makes visible what should be done more, less, newly, or continued. | When a team's or workshop's mood needs to become readable, it structures emotional signals with little setup. It makes strain, relief, and sources of energy tangible. | With a confusing workflow that has many handoffs, the method makes the actual process visible. It shows where work is passed on, delayed, or duplicated, so improvement targets the right spots. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 45-90 min | 30-60 min | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 4-12 | 3-10 | 3-10 |
Formatsame | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Starfish Board, Practice Changes, Experiments | Emotion Board, Themes, Action Items | Process Map, Handoff List, Improvement Backlog |
Tagsno overlap | RetrospectiveImprovementExperimentsTeam | RetrospectiveTeamReflection | ProcessOperationsImprovement |
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Methods with strong topical overlap with the current selection, not yet in the comparison.






