Creative Retrospective: What It Is and How It Works
- Adilla
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Retrospectives are a great way for teams and project leaders to reflect on a project, even in mid-progress, to check in with everyone. It helps improve the approach in finalising a project and the team’s performance.
When it comes to creative projects, flexibility is needed. How does that work with creative retrospectives that require structure and organisation?
So, here’s how to run a retrospective for creative teams.
Table of Contents
What Is a Creative Retrospective?
A retrospective is a structured meeting for teams to look back to identify what worked and what didn’t, with an improvement plan. When it comes to a creative retrospective, far from the structured approach of an Agile method, it is dynamic and engaging, which fits a creative team.
The core function of it is still the same: reflect on recent work, identify improvements and plan actionable changes. Except there’s a creative twist to it. Either a visual board is used, or a bit of gamification is involved.
Why Retrospective Is Important
Retrospectives create a safe environment for teams to:
Share their work journey
Take accountability
Enhance their performance
Provide the needed structure to keep your team motivated
Maintain their work momentum
When to Run a Team Reflection Session
Scheduling team retrospectives can be done on a sprint basis. See it as an opportunity to review your team’s progress, working conditions, feelings and dynamic while building stronger connections with them.
For a project-based creative retrospective, you can take into account when major releases or project phases occur to execute your retrospective. If gaps between major milestones might be too long for you and your team, consider scheduling your team’s reflective session on a monthly basis to ensure everyone is on track with your project’s timeline.
Typical Format of a Retrospective Session
Create a list of tasks or methods that worked well and what didn’t go well. Typically, listed down on a whiteboard or on sticky notes to be pasted on the wall.
Reorganise the list by importance and group similar themes together.
Discuss methods for improving the first few items on the list and focus on outcomes.
Then, create an action plan for those items for improvement. Remember to state clear roles and responsibilities with due dates.
Difference Between Creative and Agile Retrospectives
Agile retrospectives are structured meetings held at the end of a sprint to reflect on the progress, achievement and what can be improved. Creative retrospective is similar, but with a creative twist.
Understanding that creative work is not typically structured and thrives better in a space where they can let out their ideas, especially visually. So, an agile retrospective would work with a creative team; however, there needs to be a creative touch to keep them engaged and accountable.
Creative Retrospective Formats to Try
Start With an Icebreaker
Break the first-hour tensions and awkwardness by engaging in a 2-minute free doodle. It will also help your creatives let loose and take a breather from their work.
Change Your Board
After every few retrospectives, change the tool or scenery of where you conduct your team’s creative retrospective. For example, switching to a visual board to encourage fresh perspectives and spark each team member’s creative energy.
Play Hero-Villain-Plot Twist
When the format of your session gets boring for your team, turn the sprint retrospective into a storytelling session. Highlight achievements as heroes and draining tasks as villains of the sprint.
Do The Emoji Weather Rain Check
Add something else to spice up your team’s session. Adding a space for members to pick a few emojis to describe their sprint can help visually reflect how they felt about the sprint, so you can direct your team’s energy to suit the current emoji.
End With a Creative Gratitude Circle
Before ending the session, close it with a 2-minute team appreciation where the team member shares one thing someone did that made their sprint easier or key moments that you are grateful for throughout the sprint.
3 Common Mistakes When Running Retrospective Sessions
Lack of Safety
Psychological safety correlates with positive outcomes of task performance, according to this study. Thus, lack of safety could affect not only work performance but also the ability to share their thoughts during a retrospective.
No Ownership
Sharing items that reflect both success and ‘failed’ items is one thing, but what happens when no one owns up to a mistake or an accident that happened during the sprint? Retrospective requires teams to own the items that they share during the session to practise better accountability and improve their work.
No Visible Change Afterwards
Roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined for action items. Without this clarity, change will not occur. As a result, previously identified bottlenecks are likely to resurface in the next retrospective session.
Key Takeaways
Fun and honest retro sessions are a space where the team feels safe to express themselves and grow together.
Creative retrospectives don’t need to be in a strict format all the time to keep them engaging.
Ensure to avoid mistakes as well when performing retrospectives and keep the team in check and accountable to their responsibility.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Do retrospectives only work for Agile teams?
No, it is not only for Agile teams but for all types of industries and companies. As retrospectives can be applied with other management methods like Scrum and Kanban. The point of retrospectives is for teams to reflect and improve better for the next sprint.
How long should a creative retrospective be?
A creative retrospective can run from 30 minutes to 2 hours. The rule of thumb is 30 minutes to an hour for a 1-week sprint. There’s nothing wrong with a long retrospective. However, putting a time constraint can help everyone stay concise and on time in their session.
What if my team are resistant to sharing their thoughts?
When your team is resistant or not actively participating in the retrospective session, check in with them to know their sole reason for their reluctance. Letting them know the importance of these sessions can prompt them to slowly engage at their own pace.
Author Bio
With a background in Arts English, Adilla has been a casual writer for various hobbies, like parodies of animated shows and plots for board games. She loves to read anything and everything from fantasy stories to articles on tips and tricks. Now an advocate for mental health and effective project management for the creative industry. Currently, Adilla resides in Malaysia and is a creative writer at TESSR. To know more about her, check out her LinkedIn.
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