Retrospective #4: Hot-air balloon

hot air balloon retrospective
hot air balloon retrospective

The hot-air balloon is a very simple retrospective to help a team to identify what slow down the daily work of team and how the team could accelerate its work.

Feel free to read our other retrospectives on this dedicated page:

Our retrospectives

Material required for the hot-air balloon

For the Hot-air balloon, you will need to prepare the following equipment:

  • post-it
  • felt pens
  • a white board or large sheets post’it (paper board)
  • erasable markers

The overall time to plan is 30 minutes.

Different steps

Here are the different steps of this retrospective.

Step 1: The scrum master will draw on a whiteboard a balloon with a sun on the left and a storm on the right.

 

rétrospective Hot air balloon
rétrospective Hot air balloon

Step 2: the scrum master will purpose to the participants to fill post’it according to the following 2 different themes:

  • fire and hot air: what helps the team to go higher? What are the things that push the team forward?
  • the weights (obstacles) that pull down: what are the obstacles that pull the team down?

Important reminder: each participant will use a post’it per idea and will be able to do several post’it.

(Recommended time: 5 minutes)

Step 3: the scrum master will propose to the participants to fill post’it according to the 2 new different topics following:

  • the storm: what is the storm that is preparing for the team? What will make the trip become turbulent?
  • the sun (sunny days): what could the team do to avoid the storm and to have better days in the future? What can the team do to overcome the potential challenges that lie ahead?

(Recommended time: 5 minutes per participant)

Step 4: The scrum master will group the different notes and purpose to all participants to discuss. The ideal will be to get the members of the team to take responsibility for putting in place the action plans defined in step 3.

 

Conclusion hot-air balloon

Less popular than a speed boat, this retrospective has the advantage of making discover a new original retrospective to the team that tests it.

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About Judicaël Paquet 368 Articles
Judicaël Paquet (agile coach and senior devops) My Engagements in France and Switzerland: - Crafting Agile Transformation Strategies - Tailored Agile Training Programs - Raising Awareness and Coaching for Managers - Assessing Agile Maturity and Situational Analysis - Agile Coaching for Teams, Organizations, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and Agile Coaches Areas of Expertise: Scrum, Kanban, Management 3.0, Scalability, Lean Startup, Agile Methodology.

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