🍵🫖 Tea Party Retro
Gather ’round the kettle and steep our sprint insights—celebrate the brews that worked, sip the lessons, and brew a stronger next sprint.
Template Columns
🟢☕️ Brew New Beginnings
Identify fresh practices to start brewing into our workflow.
Base column: Start🛑🫖 Stop Over-steeping
Highlight habits that burnt out our process and should be halted.
Base column: Stop🔁🍵 Continue the Perfect Brew
Keep the successful rituals that keep our team humming.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
A playful sprint review where teams celebrate successes, stop over‑stepping habits, and brew new practices for the next sprint.
When to use this template
Use when you want a light‑hearted, collaborative retro that highlights both wins and improvement areas in a themed way.
How to facilitate
Welcome the team, explain the Tea Party theme and the purpose of each column.
Give each participant 2–3 sticky notes to write observations for Start, Stop, and Continue.
Collect the notes, place them under the corresponding colored columns on the virtual board.
Facilitate a round‑robin discussion, allowing each person to share the most important item from each column.
Use dot voting or emoji reactions to prioritize the top items in each column.
Turn the highest‑voted items into concrete action items with owners and due dates.
Close the retro by summarizing the commitments and thanking everyone for their contributions.
Pro Tips
Encourage vivid tea‑related metaphors to keep energy high and make insights memorable.
Limit each participant to three items per column to keep the board focused.
Use a timer for each discussion segment to stay within the allocated time.
Capture action items in a shared document linked to the board for easy follow‑up.
FAQ
What if the team runs out of ideas for a column?
Prompt with examples or ask participants to think of one small habit they wish to start, stop, or continue; you can also use silent brainstorming for a few minutes.
How do we keep the retro from becoming just a celebration?
Balance praise with constructive discussion by allocating equal time to each column and ensuring the voting step surfaces improvement opportunities.
Can this format work for larger teams?
For groups larger than 12, split into two parallel tea parties and merge the top‑voted items afterward to keep the session focused.
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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