Purpose
The method helps clarify backlog, sprint work, and team flow concretely. It helps sort work by value, risk, and deliverability. The result is captured as a Starfish Board, Practice Changes, and Experiments.
Agile
Starfish Retrospective
Turns backlog, sprint work, and team flow into a tangible result by explaining five categories, collecting inputs, and formulating experiments.
Which practices does the team keep exactly as they are, reduce, strengthen, start anew, and stop completely?
LowWorkshop45-90 min
How it works
The team follows the steps: explain the five categories, collect contributions silently, cluster and identify patterns, choose key levers, and formulate experiments. Each step is captured visibly. In the end, a Starfish Board, Practice Changes, and Experiments are available so decisions, tests, or actions can follow directly.
Visual orientation
Method sketch for a quick mental model.
Flow
- 1Explain the five categories
- 2Collect contributions silently
- 3Cluster and identify patterns
- 4Choose key levers
- 5Formulate experiments
The runsheet guides execution with 5 phases, timeboxes, 5 pitfalls, and clear stop criteria.
Open runsheetIdeal for
- Continuous Improvement
- Mature Teams
- Practice Tuning
Not good for
- Very new teams without shared experience
- Acute conflict resolution
Deep dive
In detail
Starfish Retrospective follows a clear working logic: explain five categories, collect contributions silently, cluster and identify patterns, choose key levers, and formulate experiments. This turns the method into a visible thinking process instead of only a conversation. The participants move step by step from raw material, observations, or options to a shared structure. As a result, a Starfish Board, Practice Changes, and Experiments support decisions, learning, or further planning.
Facilitation
Prepare a clear guiding question, the right information, and a visible workspace. Plan about 45 to 90 minutes with 4 to 12 people and run it in a facilitated workshop. Keep facilitation lightweight; short timeboxes, visible intermediate results, and a parking lot for open questions are helpful.
Output artifacts
Starfish BoardPractice ChangesExperiments
Artifact templates
Starfish Retrospective Working TemplateCompact working template for the Starfish retrospective with keep, more, less, stop, and start prompts.canvas
Starfish Retrospective Working TemplateCompact working template for the Starfish retrospective with keep, more, less, stop, and start prompts.
canvasstarfish-retrospective-working-template.md
Compact working template for the Starfish retrospective with keep, more, less, stop, and start prompts.
Starfish Retrospective Working Template
Goal
Turn team reflection into concrete practice changes and experiments.
Context
Which time frame or event should the team review?
Input
- Time frame:
- Team or group:
- Notes, signals, or examples:
Working area
- Keep doing:
- More of:
- Less of:
- Stop doing:
- Start doing:
- Experiment ideas:
Output artifacts
- Starfish board:
- Practice changes:
- Experiments:
Open questions
- ...
Decision / next step
Owner, date, and success signal.
When to choose differently
Short decision aid for existing alternatives.
Start Stop Continue
Statt Starfish Retrospective, wenn ihr Teamarbeit, Backlog oder Retrospektiven in einem leichten Arbeitsformat organisieren wollt.
Similar methods
All methodsAgile
Start Stop Continue
Turns backlog, sprint work, and team flow into a tangible result by setting context and timeframe, collecting start ideas, and prioritizing actions.
Statt Starfish Retrospective, wenn ihr Teamarbeit, Backlog oder Retrospektiven in einem leichten Arbeitsformat organisieren wollt.
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Sailboat Retrospective
Turns backlog, sprint work, and team flow into a tangible result by defining the destination island, collecting drivers and anchors, and agreeing on actions.
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4Ls Retrospective
Turns backlog, sprint work, and team flow into a tangible result by setting the timeframe, collecting liked and learned items, and selecting actions.
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Mad Sad Glad
Turns backlog, sprint work, and team flow into a tangible result by defining the timeframe, collecting signals of mad, sad, and glad, and deriving patterns and actions.
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Working Agreements
Turns team flow, expectations, and delivery rhythm into a tangible result by clarifying work context, collecting expectations, and setting a review cadence.
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Sprint Retrospective
Turns sprint backlog, sprint execution, and team flow into a tangible result through reflecting on the sprint, collecting positives and challenges, and carrying actions into the next sprint.