Confluence whiteboards for retros
A top benefit of working in person is having organic – even spontaneous – brainstorming or strategic riffing sessions. Being in the room together, jotting down ideas on a whiteboard as they come up, and having lively discussions isn’t just efficient and productive. It also makes work interesting and strengthens working relationships.
Many distributed teams – whether hybrid or fully remote – struggle to achieve that same dynamic.
Confluence whiteboards bring those super collaborative elements of the in-office environment to the digital space for everyone to access, wherever they are. Retrospectives are one of those team practices that are instrumental for growth and collecting internal feedback. As many industries shift towards remote work, Confluence whiteboards enable teams to seamlessly run retrospectives virtually.
Retrospectives: The what and why
Retrospectives are meetings for everyone involved in a project, account, or initiative to discuss and evaluate the experience, once it’s concluded. The goal is to identify what worked well and what didn’t, so teams can use that knowledge in the future to improve work and prevent problems from happening again.
Retrospectives are common for agile software development teams to review each development project and quickly pinpoint process, engineering, and communication improvements. They’re also a valuable practice for agencies after wrapping up a client contract to understand exactly what led to positive and negative outcomes of the relationship.
Evaluating different elements of the employee experience, like onboarding or all-hands meetings, are other great opportunities for retrospectives. Successful team retrospectives create a welcoming, safe space for everyone to contribute their thoughts transparently, thus strengthening team dynamics and evolving the business as a whole.
How to use whiteboards for retrospectives
To ensure effective retrospectives that run smoothly, they need to be focused and include all collaborators involved in a project to get everyone’s input. Find a time that works for everyone and schedule a video conferencing call for the meeting. The person or people running the retrospective should give an overview of the goals for that particular session and explain how it will work.
It’s important to emphasize that everyone’s perspectives and feedback are encouraged and respected to create a safe and welcoming environment. Decide on a format for the retrospective ahead of time for a structured and organized session, and then run the meeting accordingly. Once everyone’s in the same virtual room and you’ve explained the format of the retrospective, it’s time to put your whiteboard to work.
Retrospectives are a versatile tool, so there are plenty of different ways to approach them depending on the subject of review and reflection. In each case, the whiteboard will store all the data and results that come out of the meeting.
The sticky notes will be each participant’s main way to contribute their thoughts. The shapes and lines tools provide visual context and organization, indicating stages or aspects of the project for each person to comment on. The timer activates a countdown clock to contain each segment of the retro to a designated length of time for everyone to see while they’re working. Use stamps to vote on any parts of the retro related to changes or next steps, and stickers to react to others’ ideas.
Confluence whiteboards retrospective templates
Confluence Whiteboards have custom templates for three of the most common and effective themes you can use for a retro.
The simple retrospective
The simple retrospective is straightforward, efficient, and focuses on four main parts which are easily formatted into sections on the whiteboard:
- What was good: What yielded the best results and what were the best experiences from the project in review
- What was bad or needs improvement: Identify what caused delays, confusion, misalignment, poor performance, or any other negative outcomes
- Ideas: Resources, strategies, processes, and operations to implement in upcoming work
- Actions: Takeaways and priorities from the retro to use for the next project or assignment
This template is a good fit for reviewing product development sprints and one-off projects.
The 4 Ls retrospective
The four Ls in this retrospective cover what participants loved, loathed, learned, and longed for in the work being reviewed. In this whiteboard design, the four Ls are each in a column between the key moments or milestones of the project in the first column and the actions in the last column. This is a clean and thorough way to go over every major step involved in a project.
The 4 Ls approach is helpful for evaluating large projects, campaigns, or client relationships with many different components over a period of time. It’s also great for doing quarterly business and organizational reviews.
The sailboat retrospective
The sailboat retrospective is a bit more conceptual and mainly focuses on what slowed down and accelerated a project. The design is arranged by what the goal is in front of the sailboat, rocks that represent obstructions or risks, and wind that represents support and movement. Participants add sticky notes to each part of the template with what belongs in each section.
The sailboat approach is useful for mapping out a refined vision or new framework based on previous project experience and results.
