❄️🧊 Icebreaker Expedition
Slide into our retro like a cool breeze, melting barriers and shaping smoother sprints. Let’s crack the ice, share what to start, stop, and keep flowing!
Template Columns
🚀❄️ Ignite the Chill
Identify fresh ideas and actions to kick‑off our next cool sprint.
Base column: Start🛑❄️ Melt the Freeze
Spot habits or obstacles that are freezing progress and should be halted.
Base column: Stop♾️❄️ Keep the Frost Flow
Highlight practices that keep our momentum smooth and icy.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
A quick, ice‑breaker style retro that uses Start‑Stop‑Continue columns with a cool theme to surface fresh ideas, remove blockers, and reinforce good practices.
When to use this template
Use when a new sprint begins or after a period of tension, to lower barriers and energize the team.
How to facilitate
Begin with a brief warm‑up: ask each participant to share one word that describes the current team vibe
Introduce the three columns—Ignite the Chill (Start), Melt the Freeze (Stop), Keep the Frost Flow (Continue)—and explain the ice‑breaker theme
Give everyone 5 minutes to silently write their observations on virtual sticky notes, placing each note in the appropriate column
Group similar notes together, then invite each participant to read one item from each column and add any quick comments
Facilitate a voting round where each person allocates one dot to the most impactful item in each column, then summarize the top‑voted actions and assign owners
Pro Tips
Use a visible timer to keep the silent writing phase focused and energetic
Encourage concrete action phrasing rather than vague feelings to make follow‑up easier
If the team is large, split into breakout rooms for silent writing, then reconvene to merge the boards
FAQ
What if participants are hesitant to share honest feedback?
Reassure the team that notes are anonymous on the board and emphasize the purpose is improvement, not blame; you can also allow private chat submissions that the facilitator posts.
How do we keep the ice‑breaker theme from feeling gimmicky?
Tie the metaphor to real sprint goals—e.g., ‘melting’ obstacles that slow delivery—and keep the language light but purposeful.
What if we run out of time before voting?
Prioritize the top three items per column based on quick visual clustering and defer lower‑priority items to a follow‑up document.
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At a glance
- Duration
45–60 min
- Team Size
4-12 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
Start, Stop, Continue
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective