Talk delivered by Craig Smith and Michael Huynh at Agile Online Summit 2021 on 26 October 2021. The concept of continuous improvement is to stop, pause, reflect, and make small adjustments for the team to improve. But are retrospectives really enough for your teams to improve sprint to sprint? What if your best retrospective still doesn’t yield the results desired and doesn't move your team out of first gear? What often happens is a narrow view from a team’s perspective on the last sprint or retrospectives don’t provide enough coverage on the broader topics beyond the last iteration. Simply put, retrospectives are no longer enough! Join Craig and Michael as they both share their experience and taking your teams to the next level!

1. Rethinking Retrospectives:
Beyond the three columns
Michael Huynh & Craig Smith

2. Looking back…

3. What did we
agree to…
At regular intervals, the
team reflects on how to
become more effective,
then tunes and adjusts its
behavior accordingly.

4. Racoon

5. Twangental

6. Are we solving
world peace…

7. Smaller and
regular

8. Mission

9. Expanding

10. Inspect &
Adapt

11. Upwards and
Outwards

12. Problem
Solving

13. Team Health -
Metrics

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Team leadership A Product Owner who is
available to the team when required, and
who can champion the work of the team.
They should control the direction for the
team, prioritise the backlog, manage the
priorities and make decisions.
A Scrum Master who is available to the
team when required. They have the ability
to help the team remove impediments,
manage the team culture, foster Agile ways
of working and challenge the team towards
excellence.
Balanced team Your team is fully available
to focus on the delivery of the prioritised
work for the sprint. The team is fully
empowered to make the right decisions.
Empowered on 'how' you deliver the
outcome, meeting the acceptance criteria's
and team level 'definition of done'.
Collaboration Team members are
collaborating and working cohesively
together like a team and not individuals
working on a team. You are able to
successfully share your experience, insights
and learnings to collaborate effectively.
Tools The team have all the necessary tools,
applications, softwares, and hardware
needed to efficiently deliver the outcomes
for the product.
Processes The team have all the necessary
processes in place to define the way it
works. They are well documented and have
clear, defined work flows for the team be
effective.
Shared understanding The team have a
collective vision and feel confident in their
understanding of the stories and
acceptance criteria's. The stories are
aligned to the strategy and product vision
to deliver on the organisation's strategic
vision.
Managed dependencies We have
everything we need in the stories before we
start the work. We have ensured stories
have been well refined in order to manage
dependencies and risks to deliver the
effectively within the sprint.
Our products We're walking the talk - we're
actively focusing on valuable work to
deliver the maximum impact to our
customers and organisation. We are
understand it's value and why the problem
needs to be solved.
Metrics We understand what success
means from a business and user
perspective. It is clear on how success is
being measured, it is well defined, and we
know how this will be communicated.
Attributes measured

16. 1
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Team leadership Balancedteam Collaboration Tools Processes Shared
understanding
Managed
dependencies
Our products Metrics
Hyrdras 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 3 1
Midnight Sunshine 3 2 3 1 3 2 2 2 2
Wolves 3 2 3 3 2 2 3 3 3
Narwhals 3 3 2 3 2 2 3 3 3
Foxes 3 2 3 1 2 2 2 3 2
White Walkers 3 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 1
Artic (Overall) 3 2 3 2 2 2 2 3 2
Happiness
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Team 1
Team 2
Team 3
Team 4
Team 5
Team 6
Overall

17. Rethink and
Repurpose

18. So, what is
your
Twangental?

19. Questions?
Michael Huynh
michaelh@softed.com
Craig Smith
craigs@softed.com