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7 Myths and Legends of Agile Retrospectives

Aminata Diabi
By Aminata Diabi
Published on July 25, 2024
7 Myths and Legends of Agile Retrospectives

Let’s imagine a team meeting where everyone can openly share ideas, help identify future hardships and offer innovative solutions, in order to help your team achieve ongoing improvement.  

Well, good news! Such a meeting does exist, and it's known as Agile Retrospective. But it’s much more than a simple debriefing: the "retro" is a key tool for boosting productivity and collaboration in your team. 

And yet, while it has many benefits, retrospectives are still a vague or misunderstood concept for many. We can blame this on a number of misconceptions, which we're going to go through one after the other in this article.

At Neatro, we know all about these misconceptions. Since 2019, we've been engaging with hundreds of professionals, both within and outside Agile. So this article is a fair picture of misconceptions we’ve heard about retrospectives. 

And chances are good you'll find some ideas that may have crossed your mind at some point! 😇

Without further ado, let's address the seven most common myths of retrospectives.

  1. Retrospectives are a waste of time

  2. Retrospectives only work with Agile teams

  3. We always answer the same questions in a retrospective

  4. We only discuss old problems in a retrospective

  5. Only a Scrum Master can facilitate a retrospective

  6. Data is not documented in a retrospective

  7. It's difficult to facilitate a retrospective remotely

1. "Retrospectives are a waste of time"

Answering emails, solving a computer problem, going to client meetings....our days are so busy that thinking of adding retrospective meetings to our list can make us sweat. 

Some may even see them as time wasting, as "discussing everything and nothing is not real work".

But the benefits of retrospectives are reflected in solid and measurable indicators:

  • The ROTI (Return on Time Invested) score shows how beneficial the time spent at a meeting has been. This is a very relevant indicator of the quality and usefulness of a retrospective. For example, the median ROTI score of all retrospectives conducted on Neatro is 4.5/5 (January - June 2024).

  • According to the study named "Do Team and Individual Debriefs Enhance Performance? A Meta-Analysis" (source), teams that regularly debrief increase their productivity by an average of 20% to 25%. Let us remember that a retrospective is precisely an excellent way to debrief as a team!

  • According to another study, named "The Impact of Agile. Quantified." (source), teams state that conducting Sprint retrospectives allows them to increase their responsiveness by 24% and their quality standards by 42%.

Speaking of wasting time! Keep in mind that actions drawn from a retrospective can benefit from the SMART framework, which will enable your teams to follow their action plans in a structured approach… and avoid wasting time.

2. "Retrospectives only work with Agile teams"

Some people strongly believe that retrospectives are meant for Agile teams only, particularly those using Scrum. 

The truth is, all teams can use retrospectives, whatever their methodology or pace of work, as the goal is to analyze a situation and adapt to reality.

It’s really about getting together to think about how to improve things, enabling everyone to express themselves.

Marketing teams, for example, can hold a retrospective after kicking off a campaign and fine-tune their strategies. Product development teams can leverage it after each development phase to adjust and improve the product.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of retrospective themes that can fit in many contexts:

Whatever your team's expertise, retrospectives are a flexible and fun way of coordinating your operations.

3. "We always answer the same questions in a retrospective"

One of the easiest ways to lead a retrospective is to address these three questions: 

  • What went right?

  • What didn’t go well?

  • What could be improved?

These three questions can be found in one of Neatro's most popular retrospective formats: What Went Well.

But why stick to these questions when you can use many other powerful retrospective questions that will help you get the most value out of your retrospective’s discussions?

Actually, you're encouraged to use different scenarios to keep things fun over time, while enabling your team to tackle new angles of reflection.

For example:

4. “We only discuss problems from the past in a retrospective”

The retrospective terminology comes from the Latin word retro, which means “back, behind”. So you might think that it's all about getting together to bring back past experiences, with no grip on future projects or iterations.

But, as you can guess, retrospectives go far beyond.

Actually, a retrospective can be the breath of fresh air that puts things into perspective. 

The retrospective is also a time to celebrate achievements and discuss possible options to help you better project yourself into the future

For example, when discussing quantitative data or testimonials about a product, you bring out useful insights to foresee potential problems. 

By empowering your organization to build a culture of sharing ideas and recognition, your retrospectives will become a key driver for positive team development.

5. “Only a Scrum Master can facilitate a retrospective”

“A retrospective surely takes some knowledge. So a Scrum Master is probably best qualified to facilitate one”

Who has never thought that, eh? :)

This myth is strongly rooted, as a Scrum Master is usually expected to facilitate Scrum events, including retrospectives.

But actually, any team member can lead a retrospective.

Whether you're a developer, designer, project manager, creative director, accountant or salesperson, you can lead a project or team retrospective!

One thing really matters: your ability to build a safe and open environment for reflection and discussion.

If you often hold retrospectives (e.g. Sprint Retrospectives), we suggest you set up a rotational cycle for team members responsible for facilitating retrospectives. When you widen the role of retrospective facilitator within your team, you support each member to develop their leadership skills.

Do some of your team members want to facilitate their first retrospective, but have self-limiting beliefs holding them back?

Ask them to review the basic elements for leading a retrospective.

So you definitely don't need to be a Scrum Master to learn how to run a successful retrospective. Moving on to the next myth!

6. “We don't deal with tangible data in a retrospective; it's just a lot of talk.”

This is one of the most common myths about the retrospective format: as the focus is in discussions and communication, one could think it doesn't rely on solid data.

Actually, retrospectives are sessions where multiple minds discuss, relying on facts, data and quantifiable improvements.

Therefore, you must ensure that the discussions include quantitative data, also known as objective data.

« Objective data represents things that you can see, hear, count, measure, or verify in some way. Objective data can be counts, ratios, or trends. »

- Derby, Larsen, Horowitz, Agile Retrospectives (Second Edition)

For example, this could include:

  • the number of new subscriptions or canceled subscriptions,

  • the number of technical support requests,

  • the number of defective products.

In addition to quantitative data, the retrospective also allows for the inclusion of qualitative data, also known as subjective data.

« Subjective data is information from a personal perspective, such as feelings, perceptions, or concerns. »

- Derby, Larsen, Horowitz, Agile Retrospectives (Second Edition)

So how can you bring out subjective information in your retrospectives? You can rely on questions like these:

  • What made you feel proud during this project?

  • What were your sources of stress or worry?

  • What were your sources of motivation during this Sprint?

So there’s a wide range of data that can be measured in a retrospective, enabling you to easily track your teams' progress.

7. “Facilitating a retrospective remotely is hard”

With a growing number of people embracing remote working, facilitating a retrospective remotely can appear to be tough due to the lack of face-to-face interaction and the challenges of reading non-verbal cues.

After all, 70% of communication is non-verbal, right?

You might also think that participants would not resist checking their email or getting distracted by other tasks on their agenda during virtual meetings.

But think again: facilitating a retrospective remotely is an easy task with the latest online communication technologies.

You’ll find two main types of solution for remote retrospectives: virtual whiteboard tools and specialized retrospective tools.

Virtual whiteboards, such as Miro or MURAL, enable real-time visualization of ideas and interactive collaboration.

But for a more intuitive and efficient retrospective experience, you might want a specialized tool such as Neatro which includes tailored features, such as ready-to-use retrospective templates, a structured thinking framework, action tracking and integrated analytics.

These specialized tools not only make it easier to facilitate remote retrospectives, but also increase participant engagement, making discussion more efficient.

Embracing these technologies will help your team stay productive and keep ongoing collaboration, even remotely.

Conclusion

Debunking these 7 myths and legends clearly shows that retrospective is a powerful tool to bring teams together, while engaging and empowering them.

And remember, a team who feels listened to and understood will make the difference in your organization.

So what about moving from theory to practice?

It's time to offer your team the best retrospective experience on the market. Try Neatro for free - there’s no commitment.

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