Starfish Retrospective for Beginners | Team Habits in 5 Ways: Keep, More, Start, Stop, Less

Team & People

Starfish Retrospective for Beginners | Team Habits in 5 Ways: Keep, More, Start, Stop, Less

For teams whose KPT retros stall on how much to change, this beginner Starfish template reviews meeting, work-step, and communication habits in five directions: keep, more, start, stop, and less. Across four pages: page 1 sets the period and goal and lists habits with facts (boards①–⑤); page 2 sorts habits into 5 directions and discusses the splits (boards⑥⑦); page 3 sorts by impact and ease and narrows this round's changes to 1–3 across now/next/later (boards⑧–⑩); page 4 sets owner, timeframe, and check method, plus the keep-or-revert rule and 2-week trial (boards⑪–⑮). The task board has five columns - awaiting review, discussing, trying it, checking, and locked in - with four parent tasks matching the four pages, each holding three subtasks. Even first-timers can avoid an all-or-nothing choice between stopping and keeping everything, since more and less let you adjust by degree. After a two-week trial, the next retrospective checks results and decides keep or revert.

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Starfish retrospective Retrospective Team improvement Meeting review Beginner friendly
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① Review Period and Goal (start here) ② Everyday Meeting Habits ③ Everyday Work Step Habits ④ Everyday Communication Habits ⑤ Facts by Habit (frequency, pain poi... ⑦ Habits with Split Opinions (list re... ⑧ Sorting Changes from⑥ (impact × ease) High impact × Hard to change High impact × Easy to change Low impact × Hard to change Low impact × Easy to change ⑩ This Round's Changes (1–3 items fro... ⑪ How to Trial the Changes from⑩ ⑫ The Two-Week Trial ⑬ How to Decide Keep or Revert (based... ⑭ Rules for When It's Not Working ⑮ What We Noticed (carry into the next⑥) Starfish Retrospe... How to use (4 pag... Goal and this rou... Rules, owner, and... Pain points and w... Insights and what... 1/4 List Your Habits Ctrl+F / ⌘F : 2/4... → 2/4 2/4 Sort into 5 Direc... ↙ 3/4 Review periode.g. Last month (June 1–June 30) Goal of the retrospectivee.g. Cut meeting time to free up more time for work Participants and facilitatore.g. 5 people from the dev teamFacilitator: ____ e.g. Daily standup (15 min, 5x/week) e.g. Weekly meeting (60 min, everyone attends) e.g. Minutes written by the note-taker after the meeting Add any other regular meetings e.g. Request a review once work is done e.g. Pair up for hard tasks (once a week) e.g. Steps only exist in each person's head Add any other regular steps e.g. Urgent messages go to everyone in chat e.g. Decisions are also sent by email e.g. Time-off requests posted in chat by the day before Add any other regular communication habits Frequency/time Pain points Wins e.g. Standup e.g. 20 times, scheduled 15 min each e.g. Ran over 20 min on 5 days e.g. Could raise blockers in the morning e.g. Weekly meeting e.g. 4 times, 60 min each e.g. 30 min spent reading out status updates e.g. Got decisions made all at once e.g. Review request e.g. 12 times, avg 2 days to start e.g. Got asked what to look at e.g. Caught 2 bugs with a second pair of eyes ⑥ Starfish (place... Our team's everyday habits Keep e.g. Sharing blockers at standup (a common win in⑤) More e.g. Pairing up twice a week instead of once Start e.g. Adding what to focus on in review requests Stop e.g. Everyone reading out status at the weekly meeting Less e.g. Cutting the weekly meeting from 60 to 30 minutes Preferred directi... Alternative direc... Discussion outcome e.g. Weekly meeting e.g. Stop. Status is visible on the task board e.g. Less. Want decisions discussed together e.g. Placed under Less. Try 30 minutes e.g. Standup e.g. Keep. Can raise blockers early e.g. Less. Doing it daily breaks up the work e.g. Placed under Keep. Cut off past 15 minutes Other split items Write your preferred direction and reason Write the alternative direction and reason Write the direction you agreed on 3/4 Narrow the Changes → 4/4 4/4 Try It and Check 縦軸: Impact (top =... A Next candidate. Needs prep or discussion, so just decide the steps this round. e.g. Pairing up twice a week instead of once A Now candidate. Choose this round's changes from here. e.g. Cutting the weekly meeting from 60 to 30 minutes A Later candidate. Just record it and revisit its impact at the next retrospective. e.g. Writing up the work steps as a document Whoever notices just fixes it on the spot. Don't spend retrospective time here. e.g. Adding an agenda to meeting invites ⑨ Roadmap (sort⑧'... NowDo now e.g. Cut the weekly meeting from 60 to 30 minutes e.g. Add what to focus on in review requests e.g. Cut off standup past 15 minutes NextDo next e.g. Pair up twice a week e.g. Rotate who takes the minutes Decide at the next retro whether to move it to Now LaterDo someday e.g. Consolidate to a single communication tool e.g. Write up the work steps as a document Leave untouched this round, just keep the record Change 1e.g. Cut the weekly meeting from 60 to 30 minutes (Less) Change 2e.g. Add what to focus on in review requests (Start) Why we chose theme.g. High impact in⑧ and easy to change starting next week Approach Owner Timeframe How to check Change 1 e.g. Share the agenda the day before, cut off at 30 min e.g. Facilitator: ____ e.g. Next 2 weeks e.g. Count how many times it ended in 30 min Change 2 e.g. Add a one-line note on what to focus on e.g. Everyone making a request e.g. Next 2 weeks e.g. Count how many times you got asked back Change 3 Add a third item if you have one Owner: ____ Write the timeframe Write how to check Day 1StartShare the approach from⑪ with everyone and align on trying it starting today. End of week 1Check inLook at the numbers from⑪'s check method and spend 5 minutes asking if anything's stuck. Week 2Continue and adjustFix anything that comes up following the rules on⑭, without changing the approach too much. End of week 2Wrap upRecord the results counted with⑪'s check method and the insights from⑮, and bring them with⑬'s decision rule to the next retrospective. e.g. Keep it if it finishes in 30 min at least 3 out of 4 times e.g. Keep it if follow-up questions drop by half Write it as an “if... then keep it” statement e.g. Move an unresolved agenda item to a separate 15-minute slot e.g. Talk to the facilitator after 2 straight rough runs Don't add new approaches mid-trial e.g. One agenda item a week couldn't be settled in a 30-minute meeting e.g. Adding what to focus on got faster replies Add anything you notice during the trial → 2/4 Sort into 5 Direc... ↙ 3/4 Narrow the Changes → 4/4 Try It and Check
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Task board contents

Awaiting review 16 items

List Your Habits
Sort 5 Directions
Narrow the Changes
Try It and Check
Set Period and Goal
List Everyday Habits
Log the Facts
Place on Starfish
List Split Reasons
Read Back the Sort
Sort by Impact/Ease
Sort Now/Next/Later
Pick the Changes
Set Owner and Dates
Trial for 2 Weeks
Check at Next Review

Discussing 0 items

Trying it 0 items

Checking 0 items

Locked in 0 items

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