Agile Facilitation method

Start Stop Continue

Structures team practices through three action-oriented perspectives and supports a few concrete improvements.

Start, Stop, and Continue organise observations about new behaviour, practices to end or change, and helpful work the team wants to protect. The frame structures a review, while patterns and a few reviewable actions guide the next check.

Core question

What should the team start, stop, or deliberately continue doing?

Plan Start Stop Continue Method guide

Start comparison

Give feedbackIs this method useful to you?

Participants: 3-12
Time: 30–60 minutes for a team retrospective

Three prompts structure discussion. The retrospective needs agreed and tracked actions to create change.

Paper illustration of a team retrospective with three separate Start, Stop, and Continue areas and a shared action list.

Frame
Set the period and safety
Agree the review period, area of work, and conversation rules.
Collect
Write contributions independently
Ask team members to record concrete Start, Stop, and Continue observations quietly.
Clarify
Understand notes and patterns
Invite authors to explain ambiguous entries. Group similar observations.
Choose
Agree on a few changes
Select themes by impact, ability to change, and team capacity.
Commit
Record owners and a later check
Make chosen actions concrete. Assign owners and dates and schedule an effectiveness check.

Open the next review with the status of earlier actions. Change formats when the same items recur or deeper causes need examination.

A good fit when

Use the method for a bounded review of team practices, a sprint, a delivery, or a project milestone.

Ideal for

Team Retrospectives
Project Reviews
Continuous Improvement

Not good for

Deep root-cause analysis
Conflicts without moderation

Outputs

Three-prompt review
Concrete Start, Stop, and Continue observations for the agreed period.
Improvement experiment
A few actions with owners, dates, and a later check.

Start Stop Continue board

Fictional teaching example

Fictional observations from a four-week team pilot, separate from the blank worksheet.

Start Stop Continue board
Area of work	Start	Stop	Continue
Team practiceWhich concrete practice from the period should begin, stop, or deliberately continue?	Attach a short test note to each handoff.	Send review requests without context across several chat channels.	Involve Support with Engineering before substantial changes.

1. Start
Team practice
Attach a short test note to each handoff.
2. Stop
Team practice
Send review requests without context across several chat channels.
3. Continue
Team practice
Involve Support with Engineering before substantial changes.

Fictional contributions refer to four weeks. Selected points become small actions with an owner, date, and check at the next review.

Atlassian: Start, Stop, Continue retrospective

First step

Set the period, area of teamwork, and review goal. Frame contributions as observable behavior or work conditions.

Open the method guide

Where to go next?

Agile

Working Agreements

Turns the Start items into binding new team rules.

Paper illustration of an activity-role table with clear RACI assignments and one highlighted accountable role per activity.

Operations

RACI Matrix

Clarifies ownership for the agreed action across roles.

Deep dive

Purpose

When a team wants to deliberately adjust its working behavior, it makes habits visible and assessable. It focuses on concrete changes instead of diffuse mood.

How it works

It sorts observations into three directions of action and condenses them into a few clear adjustments. The simple structure lowers the entry hurdle and directs the review straight at behavior that should be started, ended, or stabilized.

In detail

The method works because it formulates change with a low threshold, making behavior negotiable faster than abstract process criticism. Used well, every statement stays concrete enough that observable action follows from it. Its benefit increases when the team doesn't just collect wishes but checks reasons, prioritizes friction points, and deliberately builds on existing strengths.

Facilitation

Prepare a clearly bounded work context so entries don't jump between topics. The conversation gains sharpness as soon as several points point to the same cause. Close with a small selection of binding changes, a deliberate reinforcement of good practice, and a check date for the effect.

The method guide walks execution through 5 phases, timing, 5 pitfalls, and clear stop criteria.

Open method guide

Your perspective

Does this method help with your work?

Your feedback helps shape the next improvements to methodatlas.

Sources and topics

Topics

Retrospective Improvement Team Reflection

Sources

5 fun sprint retrospective ideas with templates - Inside Atlassianatlassian.comErklärt die drei Spalten, Leitfragen und den schnellen handlungsorientierten Ablauf.A Simple Way to Run a Sprint Retrospective - Mike Cohn / Mountain Goat Softwaremountaingoatsoftware.comBeschreibt Start-Stop-Continue als Retro-Format, mögliche Abstimmung und seine Grenzen bei Wiederholung.

In playbooks

Turn Retrospective into ImprovementMove from team feeling to prioritized learning points, experiments, and verifiable change.

Artifact templates

Start Stop Continue: WorksheetPlan a bounded team review with silent contributions, three prompts, and a few tracked actions.

markdown

start-stop-continue-working-template.md

Plan a bounded team review with silent contributions, three prompts, and a few tracked actions.

Start Stop Continue: Worksheet

Question

To be confirmed

Desired outcome

To be confirmed

Scope

Reflect on and adapt team practices Time: 30–60 minutes; actions are implemented and checked afterward

Complete this worksheet on paper or in your own document during the work.

Preparation for this scope

Method setup

Materials: Three clearly labeled columns, cards or a digital board, quiet writing time, a timer, and an action note with owner and date.
Roles: Facilitation protects participation and focus on work. Team members write and clarify contributions. A recorder tracks selected actions and follow-up.
Advance information: Set the period and work context. Bring open actions from the last review and observations from the work being discussed.
Overall time needed: 30–60 minutes for a facilitated review; implementation and later effectiveness checks happen afterward.
Setup: Ask three questions: What should we start? What should we stop? What should we continue? Let contributions begin independently and quietly. Clarify whether notes describe observable practices. Group themes and discuss patterns. Turn selected points into a few actions with owners, dates, and a next check. Do not skip Continue; do not phrase Stop as a personal attack.

Prepare for the work steps

Frame: Set the period and safety

Period, team goal, prior actions

Collect: Write contributions independently

Three-column board, cards

Clarify: Understand notes and patterns

Collected contributions

Choose: Agree on a few changes

Clarified themes and authority

Commit: Record owners and a later check

Prioritized themes, team capacity

Start Stop Continue board

Area of work	Start: What should we begin?	Stop: What should we end or change?	Continue: What should we keep doing?
Team practice

Team practice: Which concrete practice from the period should begin, stop, or deliberately continue?

Blank worksheet: record period and work area, then add observable behavior or work conditions in each column. Do not carry over example text or actions.

Atlassian: Start, Stop, Continue retrospective