Lucid Facilitator’s Guide

A FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESSFUL

PROJECT RETROSPECTIVES
This meeting framework helps teams learn from project successes
and failures together, and commit to change based on what they
learned.

Use this template as a starting place when designing your next

project retrospective, and adapt the agenda to fit your team.

Best For

Learning from completed projects

15 or fewer people

Projects lasting one year or less

Contents
Introduction......................................................................2
Key Concepts...................................................................3
Agenda.............................................................................. 4
Step-by-Step Instructions...........................................5
Questions for Retrospectives.................................. 13
Resources for Achieving Meeting Mastery ....... 15
About the Author......................................................... 16

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 1

 INTRODUCTION

Your team just completed a project. Some things went exactly

as planned, some went better than you’d hoped. Other moments
weren’t so great. Now that the experience is behind you, it’s time to
reflect, then take what you’ve learned into improving your approach
to the next project.

“We do not learn from experience ... we learn

from reflecting on experience.”

–John Dewey

The project retrospective is a core practice for every team that

seeks to learn from experience and master their craft.

During this meeting, your team will:

• Review what happened during the project

• Discuss what worked well and what didn’t

• Commit to making changes that will improve the next project

This template provides a simple framework for leading a project

retrospective. The online template shows one way of running
the meeting. This guide includes several options for leading the
discussion and links to additional resources.

Regardless of the techniques you choose, the end result should be

the same. At the end of the meeting, the team leaves with a specific
list of actions they’ll take to ensure the lessons learned aren’t lost.

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 2

Key Concepts
Plan enough time.
Each meeting needs AT LEAST 1 hour. Many experts suggest
scheduling 45 minutes of reflection time per week of project work.
You can keep the full project retrospective shorter by running smaller
retrospectives more often. As an example, our team once managed
projects that lasted 4 to 9 months. We ran shorter retrospectives
after every major milestone, then one big “Project Wrap” at the end.
The final Project Wrap typically lasted 1.5 to 3 hours, after which we
all went for nachos and beer.

Retrospectives are a practice.

These meetings run better and get better results after you’ve had a
few. Practice helps the team prepare more easily, and to reach better
agreements faster. Teams become even more successful when they
see real change as a result, because they know the time spent in the
retrospective will make their work better in the long run.

Preparation is required.
You’re asking the team to reflect on their experience, pull out key
learnings, and turn that into meaningful change. If you rush it, you’ll
get whatever comes to mind in the moment, which will usually say
more about how their current project is going than what happened
in the last one.
Don’t wing it. Have a plan, and make it easy for the team to come
prepared.

Don’t try to change everything at once.

At the end of the meeting, you want to walk out with a commitment
to concrete actions. That said, if people see that these meetings
generate all kinds of ideas but nothing real ever comes of it, they’ll
stop participating.
For a meaningful result, make sure the action plans coming out of
your meeting are realistic, and that the people responsible for the
changes can actually carry them out.

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 3

AGENDA
GOAL
Review the project and identify key learnings that we can use to
improve how we work going forward.

DURATION

1 to 3+ hours, depending on team size and project duration

Welcome

Project Review

What did we learn?

• Successes

• Challenges

• Other Insights

Priorities: What matters most?

5 Changes to Make: Action Planning

6 Closing & Evaluation

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 4

STEP-BY-STEP
INSTRUCTIONS

Before the meeting

Identify your audience. To whom will you “hand off” the
results of this meeting? Is this to help your team improve an
internal process, for a team inheriting your project, or for the
department or company as a whole?

Assemble a project timeline, showing major events and

milestones. Also, review the original project definition, success
criteria and any metrics you have regarding the project’s
outcome.

Refine the agenda. Decide how you want to run the different
parts of the meeting and update the agenda accordingly. If
this is your first retrospective, we recommend sticking with
the simple format outlined in the online agenda.

Schedule the meeting at least 3 days in advance.

Invite the team. Ask them to come prepared with their key
insights, observations, and ideas for improvement.

Get supplies. Several retrospective techniques require

additional supplies, such as sticky notes or online voting
systems. In-person meetings benefit from snacks!

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 5

 During the meeting
1 Welcome
This agenda item gives everyone a chance to get online
before you begin. While we recommend against waiting
for latecomers (don’t punish the punctual!), you should
allow a few moments for anyone fumbling with audio
or their Internet connections to join. Once everyone’s
ready, welcome them and get started.
Begin by going over:
• the meeting goal,
• the results you expect to see at the end of the
meeting,
• and the process you’ll use to get there.
When you’re ready, click “Next >” to get started with
the project review.

2 Project Review
Next, make sure everyone has a shared view on the
project. In order to come up with useful ideas that
everyone can agree on, the team needs a shared
understanding of the facts and insight into the parts of
the project in which they may not have been involved.
Do not skip or rush through this step. People will
arrive at the retrospective ready to discuss and solve
problems, often assuming they know everything they
need to know about what happened. This is rarely true.
If you are reviewing a project as a team, that means it
took many people with unique experiences to get to
that point. This step ensures everyone gets all the facts
straight before they try to solve problems they may
only partially understand.
We’ve listed 3 ways you can run this part of the meeting
on the next page.
After you complete the project review, click “Next >” to
begin sharing insights.

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 6

 3 Options for
Leading the Project Review
Ask the Group
1
For shorter projects or for mid-project retrospectives, you can
ask the group to discuss the facts.
Questions to ask:

What was supposed to happen?

What actually happened?

or

What did you set out to achieve?

What was your plan to achieve this?

How did this change as you progressed?

Share a Project Report

2
The project leader presents a project report, and the team
comments on their experiences during the presentation.
A report is best for online meetings and smaller projects where
most of the team was involved throughout the whole process.
If you choose this option, keep it short.

Create a Shared Timeline

3
The leader posts the key project dates and milestones. Then,
the team works as a group to create a visual timeline of the
project, with each person filling in details along the way.
This approach takes longer, but makes for a better conversation,
a stronger shared experience, and it’s more fun!
Example: the “Peaks and Valleys” technique can be used by
groups meeting in-person to create a shared timeline of the
project that highlights good and bad experiences.

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 7

3 What did we learn?
This is the heart of the meeting.
From this point on, your team will discuss what they
learned during the project. Together, you’ll then identify
the top insights and assign specific action items to
ensure these lessons result in meaningful change.
The Lucid Meetings template agenda includes a very
basic approach to this discussion. We ask three simple
questions:
• Successes: What worked well?
• Challenges: Where did we run into challenges?
• Other Insights
Choose your questions in advance. The specific
questions you ask will have a big impact on your results.
For more options, see our guide to Questions for
Retrospectives on page 13.
The online Lucid Meetings template includes these
questions.

3.1 Successes

“What worked really well during this

project?

What should we make sure we do

again in the future?”
3.2 Challenges

“Where did we run into challenges?”

3.3 Other Insights

“Where did we get lucky?

What was unexpected?

Who helped you on this project?”

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 8

 3 Options for Gathering Insights
Just talk.
1
Some teams find it works best for them if the leader reads each
question, then the group just talks about it.
This option is the least structured approach, which can result in
a very free and engaging conversation. However, if your group
includes people who are reluctant to speak up, people who
tend to dominate the discussion, or more than 5 people, this
option tends to limit the number of ideas discussed and reduce
your chance of getting quality contributions from multiple
perspectives.

Use the KJ Technique.

2
This is how many agile teams run their retrospectives. It’s
fast, interactive, and engaging. This approach requires sticky
notes and markers if you are meeting in person, or specialized
software if you are meeting online.

Read about the technique.

Find ways to run the technique online.

Brainstorm silently then talk.

3
This process balances structure with open conversation. It’s
designed to help people contribute their best ideas, and to
ensure every participant has an equal opportunity to share.

This is the option used in the online Lucid Meetings template.

First, ask people to brainstorm individually. Allow 3 minutes of

silent brainstorming per question. This time for silent reflection
gets the most creative results.
Then, share and discuss the responses.

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 9

Tips for Sharing Ideas
• Put each idea into a separate note.
This makes each idea easier to rank and update later.

• Write each idea as a complete sentence.

Do not just write phrases that answer the questions.
When you look at all the ideas together, full sentences
will make it easy to see which insights relate to each
question.

• Use a Go-Around for sharing.

Ask each person to share one idea at a
time. Go around the group, asking for one
idea from each person, then go around
again until all ideas have been shared.

• Combine similar ideas.

It’s OK to change and combine notes when
two people have similar ideas. If you’re using sticky
notes, it’s OK to stack duplicate ideas together. When
someone hears an idea that they had too, they should
speak up and add their duplicate note right then.

• Identify themes.
Notice related ideas and work together to pull out the
common themes. For example, a problem with unclear
requirements, a missed deadline, and an unhappy
customer can all be related to a step in the contract
process that needs improvement.

Identifying themes is the “grouping” step in the KJ

Method

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 10

4 Prioritize: What matters most?

You should now be looking at a big list of both

successes and challenges. As a group, pick the top 3 to
5 ideas (or themes) that you want to discuss as a team.

Using Lucid, you’ll see all the notes automatically, and

can tag the key ideas as a “Priority”. If you are meeting
in person, circle or highlight the key ideas.

Spend no more than 5 minutes picking your top ideas.

You need plenty of time for the next topic.

5 Changes to make: Action Planning

Discuss the priority ideas. Ask:

“Given these priorities, what should we

change for future projects?

And, what can we do after this

meeting to make sure this change
happens?”
Try to get specific, and create clear action items that
people in the meeting can complete. These might
include tasks like:
• Updating project templates or processes
• Providing a report or training for other teams
• A change to an existing project underway
• Improved use of technology
• Adding or removing a vendor from future
projects
When you’re done discussing priorities and adding
action items, click “Next >” to close out the meeting.

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 11

6 Closing and Evaluation
End the meeting by first asking if anyone has anything
else they need to say. Then, review the action plan to
make sure every task is clearly understood and has an
appropriate owner and due date.
Next, take a moment to thank the group, and for the
group to acknowledge each other’s contributions.
Finally, ask everyone to take a moment and review
the meeting. If you want feedback, you must ask for it
specifically.
If you use Lucid Meetings, you can say:

“There are a lot of ways to run this

kind of meeting, and we all want to
make sure this is a good use of our
time. Before you leave, please quickly
rate this meeting and provide some
feedback on the form you’ll see once
the meeting ends.”

After the meeting

Send out the follow-up email, which makes sure
everyone gets their action items and a full report in
their email, even if they couldn’t attend the meeting.

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 12

QUESTIONS FOR
RETROSPECTIVES
The questions you ask change the answers you receive. Here are a
selection of questions others have used successfully to shape the
conversation in their retrospectives.

Questions About the Project in General

• Are you proud of our finished work? If yes, what made it
great? If no, what was wrong or missing?
• Did we get the results we wanted and did it make an
impact?
• Which tools or techniques proved to be useful? Which
not?
• What did you learn about working with this client?
• What important decisions were made during this
project?
• What compromises were made? (Things that might look
like a mistake but were done for a reason.)

Questions About What Worked

• What was the most gratifying or professionally satisfying
part of the project?
• What did we do well, that if we don’t discuss we might
forget?
• What helps us to be successful as a team?
• Which of our methods or processes worked
particularly well?
• Where did we get lucky? What can we do to ensure
we succeed if we aren’t so lucky next time?

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 13

Questions About Challenges
• What was the biggest impediment?
• Which of our methods or processes were difficult or
frustrating to use?
• What was painful but necessary?
• What’s still keeping you awake at night? What did we leave
unresolved?

• What still puzzles us?

Questions About Take-Aways

• What advice would you give yourself if you were to go back
to the start of the project?
• What should we have learned from this project a year from
now?
• Are there any lessons for you personally?

• What else could we do better next time?

Question Sets
Use columns or a grid to organize answers in categories.

• Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed For

• Drop, Add, Keep, and Improve

• Stop, Start, and Continue

• Enjoyable, Frustrating, Puzzling

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 14

RESOURCES FOR ACHIEVING
MEETING MASTERY
There are SO Many good resources for learning about retrospectives.
Many come from the Agile software development community, but
the practices apply no matter what kind of project you run. These are
just a few of our favorites.

Websites and Applications

Fun Retrospectives
http://www.funretrospectives.com/
Retrium: Dedicated software and great resources for running online
agile retrospectives
https://retrium.com/
Retrospective Questions Blog posts
https://www.portent.com/blog/10-tips-for-a-successful-post-mortem.
htm
http://www.alexanderinteractive.com/blog/2012/09/redefining-the-
post-mortem-meeting/
http://betterevaluation.org/evaluation-options/after_action_review
http://www.benlinders.com/2013/which-questions-do-you-ask-in-
retrospectives/
Other search keywords to explore
Project postmortem, project retrospective, project wrap up, after-
action planning
Books
Esther Derby and Diana Larsen , “Agile Retrospectives: Making Good
Teams Great” 2006
http://smile.amazon.com/Agile-Retrospectives-Making-Teams-Great/
dp/0977616649
James Shore, “The Art of Agile”, 2007
http://www.jamesshore.com/Agile-Book/retrospectives.html

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 15

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This template was designed and produced by the team at Lucid
Meetings.

Learn more about us on our website.

Provided under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike

4.0 International License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Project Retrospective Facilitator’s Guide 16