Retrospective Activity

Strengths, Improvements, and Actions

Focus Medium Popularity: 2

This activity:

Promotes balanced feedback on team performance
Encourages continuous improvement through specific actions
Builds accountability by assigning ownership of action items
Helps the team focus on both strengths and growth areas
Fosters a culture of reflection and proactive change

Introduction

This retrospective encourages the team to highlight their strengths, identify areas where improvement is needed, and agree on actionable steps to be taken in the next sprint. It combines positive reinforcement with constructive feedback and a clear focus on actionable outcomes for continuous improvement.

💪 Strengths

🔧 Improvement Areas

✅ Actions for Next Sprint

For the specific activity, the facilitator could use these points to describe the process:

The 💪 Strengths column is for Highlight the team's strengths, focusing on what went well during the sprint and how those strengths contributed to success..
The 🔧 Improvement Areas column is for Discuss areas where the team could improve and gather suggestions or solutions to address them..
The ✅ Actions for Next Sprint column is for Agree on specific, actionable steps to take in the next sprint, assigning ownership to ensure follow-through..

TIP

Onboarding the team to the selected activity is important for a successful meeting. To learn more on what's needed to onboard your team to a retrospective meeting, read here.

Tips & Tricks

Encourage actionable, small steps for improvement rather than broad, undefined changes.

Assign ownership to each action to ensure accountability for the next sprint.

Celebrate the team's strengths to maintain motivation and morale.

Review and track previous actions to measure progress over time.

Popularity: 2

The "Strengths, Improvements, and Actions" activity is sometimes used among Team O'clock teams. It seems that only a few teams use this activity for their retrospectives.

Recap