Start, Stop, Continue
The workhorse. Best when the team already knows what is wrong and needs to convert grumbling into three concrete changes.
Start · Stop · Continue
Retrospectives your team will actually finish.
Everyone writes at the same time and nobody sees anyone else's card until the facilitator reveals them. Then the room reacts, the strongest feedback rises, and you leave with owned actions instead of a shared feeling.
- Anonymous while writing
- Five proven templates
- Actions that carry over
How it works
- Step 1
Everyone writes at once
Pick a template, set a timer, and share the link. Cards stay hidden while people think, so nobody writes a reaction to somebody else's reaction.
- Step 2
Reveal and react
The facilitator flips the board. Agree, disagree, or not sure — cards reorder by how much the room responded, so the real topics rise to the top.
- Step 3
Leave with owned actions
Turn the cards worth acting on into action items with a name against them. Next retro opens with the ones still outstanding.
Retrospective templates
Mad, Sad, Glad
Use it when morale is the actual topic. Naming the feeling first makes the underlying cause much easier to say out loud.
Mad · Sad · Glad
4Ls
Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For. Good after a long release, when there is more to review than one sprint's worth of events.
Liked · Learned · Lacked · Longed for
Sailboat
Wind, anchors, rocks, island. The metaphor helps a team talk about what is slowing them down without it sounding like blame.
Wind · Anchor · Rocks · Island
KALM
Keep, Add, Less, More. A calmer frame for teams that are basically working well and want to tune rather than overhaul.
Keep · Add · Less · More
Frequently asked questions
Can retrospective cards be anonymous?
While the team is writing, yes — you can only see your own cards, and everyone else's are hidden until the facilitator reveals the board. That is usually the difference between a retro that surfaces the real problem and one that surfaces the safe one.
Which retrospective formats are included?
Start-Stop-Continue, Mad-Sad-Glad, 4Ls (Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For), Sailboat, and KALM (Keep, Add, Less, More). Each opens as a ready board, so you are not building columns while the team waits.
How does voting on cards work?
After the reveal, everyone reacts to each card with agree, disagree, or not sure. Cards reorder by how much the room responded, so the discussion order is set by the team rather than by whoever speaks first.
How do we stop action items from being forgotten?
Action items are recorded with an owner and stay attached to the retro summary you can copy as Markdown or export as a PDF. Any that are still open resurface at the top of your next retrospective.
Is there a timer for the writing phase?
Yes. The facilitator sets it when starting the writing phase and can add more time without restarting. Everyone can also mark themselves done early, so you can move on as soon as the room is ready.
Does everyone need an account to join a retro?
No. Participants join with the link and a display name. An account is only needed to keep history, use a permanent team URL, or connect integrations.
Is it suitable for fully remote teams?
It is built for them. Cards, reveals, reactions, and action items all travel over a websocket, so a distributed team is looking at the same board at the same moment with nothing to refresh.