Retrospective questions for Scrum and agile teams

How to use these questions

Choose a few questions that fit what the team needs this sprint, not all of them. Ask them in the order of the retro: open, gather, understand, decide.

Let people answer silently in writing first, then discuss. Written answers are more honest and give everyone a voice. If a question gets the same answers every sprint, replace it.

Questions to open a retrospective

Openers get everyone speaking early and show how people arrive. Keep them short.

• In one word, how was this sprint for you?
• On a scale of 1–5, how much energy do you have today?
• What is one thing you're proud of from this sprint?
• If this sprint were a weather forecast, what would it be?
• What do you hope we get out of this retro?

Questions about what happened

These questions gather facts and experiences before anyone interprets them.

• What went well this sprint?
• What didn't go as planned?
• What surprised you?
• Which moment would you want to repeat?
• Where did we lose the most time?
• What did we learn that we didn't know at the start?

Questions about collaboration and communication

These questions look at how the team worked together, not at what it built.

• When did we work best together this sprint?
• Where did information get lost between people or teams?
• Who helped you this sprint, and how?
• Did anyone feel blocked waiting for someone else?
• Were decisions made in the right place, by the right people?
• How could our meetings be shorter or more useful?

Questions about process and tools

These questions examine the way the team plans, tracks and delivers work.

• Did our sprint plan hold up? If not, why?
• Was our work broken down small enough?
• Which part of our process added the least value?
• Which tool helped us most, and which slowed us down?
• What did we do manually that we could automate?
• Did anything outside the team disrupt the sprint?

Questions about quality and the Definition of Done

These questions check whether “done” really meant done.

• Did everything we called done meet our Definition of Done?
• Where did bugs or rework come from?
• Is our Definition of Done still achievable within a sprint?
• What would make releasing easier or safer?
• Which technical debt hurt us this sprint?

Questions about goals and value

These questions connect the team's work to outcomes for users and the business.

• Did we meet the Sprint Goal? Why or why not?
• Did we deliver what users or the business needed most?
• What feedback did we get from users or stakeholders?
• Is it clear to everyone why we're building what we're building?
• What should we stop working on?

Questions about team health and psychological safety

Ask these carefully, keep answers anonymous if needed, and never push anyone to share.

• Do you feel comfortable raising problems in this team?
• Is the workload sustainable?
• What drained your energy this sprint?
• What gave you energy?
• Is there something we're not talking about?

Questions to decide actions and close

End with questions that turn insight into one or two concrete changes and improve the next retro.

• What is one small change we will try next sprint?
• Who will own it, and when will we check it?
• How will we know if it helped?
• What should we keep doing no matter what?
• How useful was this retro, from 1 to 5?
• What would make the next retro better?
• What did we decide today, in one sentence?

Retrospective formats built around questions

Many retro formats are simply a good set of questions with a structure around them.