Doshka — online whiteboard for teamwork and lessons

🔁 How to run a retrospective online: a step-by-step plan and template

A retrospective is a short team meeting at the end of a sprint or stage: what went well, what got in the way and what to change. Online it can work as well as in a meeting room — if you prepare the board and agree on the rules in advance.

What you need

• a board with three columns: “What went well”, “What to improve”, “Actions” — the ready-made Retrospective template in Doshka;
• a timer and dot voting — both are on the board;
• 45–60 minutes for a team of 5–9 people.

Step 1. Prepare the board (5 minutes before the meeting)

Open the retrospective template and send participants the board link — they don’t need to sign up. At the start of the board, add the goal of the meeting and the results of the last retro: which actions you agreed on and what came of them.

Step 2. Warm-up (5 minutes)

Ask a short question everyone answers with a sticky note, for example “One word about the sprint”. It helps everyone get involved and eases the tension.

Step 3. Collect opinions (10–15 minutes)

Everyone writes sticky notes in the “What went well” and “What to improve” columns. Turn on private mode: participants don’t see each other’s notes and don’t adjust to others’ opinions. Set a timer so the meeting doesn’t drag on.

Step 4. Discuss and vote (15–20 minutes)

Reveal all the notes and group similar ones. Then run dot voting: everyone has three votes for the most important problems. Discuss topics in order of votes, 3–5 minutes per topic.

Step 5. Actions (10 minutes)

For the two or three main problems, write concrete actions in the “Actions” column: what to do, who is responsible and by when. Two completed actions are better than ten forgotten ones.

Common mistakes

• too many actions — in the end none get done;
• discussing people instead of processes;
• not coming back to the actions from the last retro;
• one person talks while the rest stay silent — private mode and collecting notes before the discussion help.

Other formats

Besides “went well — improve — actions”, popular formats are “Start — Stop — Continue”, “4L” (liked, learned, lacked, longed for) and “Sailboat”. They are easy to build on the board from frames and sticky notes.

Open the retrospective template — Free. The board owner needs an account; participants only need the link.

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