Agile Retrospectives

8.4 Activity: Helped, Hindered, Hypothesis

Use when closing iteration or release retrospectives.

Purpose

Help the retrospective leader get feedback to improve skills and processes.

Time Needed

Five to ten minutes.

Description

Retrospective leader gathers feedback from team members to discover what helped team members work and learn together during the session, find out what hindered them, and get ideas about what else to try in future retrospectives.

Steps

1. Show the three flip charts, and hand out sticky notes to the team members. “Please help me to become a better retrospective leader. Give me feedback on this retrospective. These three charts represent things about this retrospective that helped you to think as a group and learn about the iteration, things that hindered or got in the way of your thinking or learning, and what hypothesis you might have about things I could do differently to improve our next retrospective.”

2. “Use the sticky notes to write your feedback. When you are done please put your initials on each note, and stick them on the appropriate flip chart.”

3. End by thanking the team for helping you to improve. Ask whether you may contact team members later if you need clarification or have questions about what they’ve written.

Materials and Preparation

Prepare three blank flip charts with titles at the top: “Helped,” “Hindered,” “Hypothesis.”

Examples

The Helped, Hindered, Hypothesis (HHH) activity highlights team learning and encourages team members ...