Winning Streak Retrospective

What’s better than a big win? Winning again, and again, and again – a winning streak.

Repeating wins don’t happen by chance, they come from smart reflection.

This retro template helps you analyze your big wins so you can replicate what made them successful.

If you want to turn a single win into a winning streak, this retro is a great place to start.

Here’s how to break your wins into categories:

These are your unquestionable successes, and they can be anything from processes that worked well, to launching a product that got excellent reviews. Anything that contributed to your wins goes here. 

Example: We launched the new app on time and we’ve got a five star rating!

That amazing no-look pass, the intuitive assist that just felt right, the half-time pep talk from the coach that energized you—this category is about the things your team did to bring in that win. Like most sports, work is a team effort. This category focuses on the collaborative aspects of your success.

Example: Having that weekly meeting kept us all on the same page

Look back the conditions that contributed to your win and look for the things you can repeat. Maybe it was the weekly check-in meetings, or the new program your team adopted. If it seems like something that could help keep the streak alive, write it down.

Example: QA test during the sprint to make sure we launch bug free

This is the retro version of spraying that champagne as confetti rains down from above. Pump up your teammates and share their successes with the team. Call out what people did well because a little encouragement goes a long way.  It can also motivate team members to keep the winning streak going!

Example: Anil crushed it with those loading screen graphics! They really made the app pop!

A lot of retrospectives tend to highlight problem areas, or things that need to be addressed to improve a process or project, but the Winning Streak retro is all about successes. It’s about reverse engineering a win to peek at its basic ingredients, then figuring out how to make sure those ingredients come together again and again, sprint after sprint. 

Remember to give your team a little wiggle room. Just like in sports, you can’t perfectly recreate the conditions of a winning game. There will be small differences and variations, and that’s okay. This is about identifying the things that made your team successful so you can apply them to the next sprint. 

After a win, of course! Try to run this retro while memories of a recent success are still fresh. This retro helps you identify the strengths of your team and their performance, so you’ll want to do it when everyone still remembers the details of that performance. 

It’s also important to do it soon enough after a win to make sure everything is in place to repeat that win. If the win you want to repeat is something you won’t encounter again for a while (for example, a seasonal product launch), then you can run it right after your team’s big win, and then go for a refresher right before the kickoff of the next project. 

The kudos section is just as important as the other categories. Thanks to Parabol’s anonymous reflections, you can heap praise on team members without revealing who said it. For some, that can help them let loose with compliments and virtual high fives. Congratulating team members on their contributions can reinforce behaviors that can lead to more wins in the future.

Select Retro Meeting with the arrows, then use the dropdown to select the Winning Streak retro template. 

The icebreaker box is checked on by default. You don’t have to do one, but we recommend it. They offer a chance to break the ice and get everyone in a chatty mood that encourages active participation. 

When you’ve made your choices, hit that Start Meeting to kick things off!

If you’re doing an icebreaker, you’ll have a random question to answer. You can refresh it if you want another option, or create your own.Maybe something about your favorite winning streak – it could be a sports team, a gaming experience, or series of personal achievements

After the icebreaker you’ll move on to the reflect stage. This is where you get into the principles of the Winning Streak retro discussed above. 

Remember, Parabol is remote-friendly, enabling you to work asynchronously with your team. They can all leave comments together, or do it at a time that works for them. Also, reflections are anonymous, and no one can see them until you’re done working on them. 

After the reflect phase, you’ll vote on issues to discuss, talk about the most voted on items, and then get a summary of the retro when you’re done. Make sure to review the retro 101 guide for tips on running a retrospective smoothly.