Life preservers are things that helped you or could help you in the future, to avoid difficult situations or save your sprint from failing. Examples of anchors in the team process include changing priorities, a slow review process, or a redistribution of resources that stalls out the team. Examples of ‘wind in our sails’ usually include instances of collaboration or efficient communication among team members.Īnchors are problems or inefficiencies during the Sprint that held you back from sailing at an optimal pace. It represents what went well during the Sprint and the practices you want to continue encouraging within the team in the future. The wind is what drives your boat forward and helps you reach the island. Typically, areas of conversation during a Sailboat retro fall under one of the following categories: The topics you discuss during a Sailboat retrospective are focused on keeping the journey smooth and analyzing the problems that make it more difficult.
Imagine your team as the crew of a boat propelled by the wind and each Sprint is like a stage of the trip towards your goal of reaching the land you see ahead of you. The Sailboat is a fun way of doing retrospectives by looking at your work as part of a sea journey.
It gives you the opportunity to inspect your process from the perspective of a crew sailing a boat headed toward an exotic island. If you have come to this conclusion yourself, why not spice things up occasionally with a different retrospective format like the Sailboat retro? Keeping your retros fun is vital for maintaining high team engagement in the long run and continuously improving your process.