How to run a useful retrospective
Hi there, it’s Adam from Untools,
We often move from a project or a year to the next without stopping to reflect. Then the same patterns play out and we miss learning what worked well or what to change. As this research shows, people learn better when they reflect on their experience. To get the most out of this reflection, it’s best to be structured about it and think about things from different perspectives.
In this newsletter I’ll share a couple of retrospective frameworks that you can use for reflections in different situations: personal year reviews, team retrospectives, or project post-mortems.
And as the end of the year approaches, I will also reflect briefly on how this year’s been for Untools.
Retrospective frameworks
1. Rose, Thorn, Bud
This is a simple and accessible framework for both individuals and groups to assess how they feel about a project or situation.
When to use
Quick weekly or monthly check-ins
Sprint retrospectives
After any completed experience (course, project, event)
How to run it
Set up a board with three columns:
Rose (Highlights): What’s working well? What was the highlight so far?
Thorn (Challenges): What’s been challenging? What could’ve turned out better?
Bud (Opportunities): What can we improve? What are we missing?
Set a timer for 5-10 minutes to think about the recent experience and write down notes in each column. Aim for 3-4 items per column, but you can add more if time allows.
After you write your cards and capture them on the board, review them. If you’re in a group, go around and read them aloud.
Acknowledge and celebrate the Roses (Highlights), discuss the Thorns (Challenges) and then select one or two Buds (Opportunities) that you will work on.
Tip: Don't skip the Bud section. It's tempting to focus only on what happened, but Buds are what turn reflection into action. If you run these regularly, you can always start by reviewing Buds from previous retros.
Time needed: 20-30 minutes
Example: Team sprint retrospective
Let's say your product team just finished a 2-week sprint. You run a quick ‘Rose, Thorn, Bud’ retro.
Roses the team shares include: shipped on time, good collaboration between design, and engineering and positive customer feedback on the new feature
Thorns that come up: requirements changed mid-sprint, QA was rushed at the end, and one team member felt left out of key decisions.
Buds the team wants to explore: try pair programming more often, run user testing earlier in the process, and automate some of the repetitive testing.
Looking at the patterns, the team decides to address the "requirements changing" thorn by agreeing on a scope freeze point after day 3. They'll also experiment with earlier user testing in the next sprint.
2. Mad, Sad, Glad
This framework invites for reflection through the lens of emotions and it’s especially helpful when the recent experience had been difficult.
When to use
After stressful periods or failed initiatives
When morale is low and you want to understand why
When you want to create space for feelings before problem-solving
How to run it
Set up a board with three columns:
Mad: What frustrated or angered you?
Sad: What disappointed you? What do you wish had gone differently?
Glad: What made you happy? What are you grateful for?
Set a timer for 5-10 minutes to think about the recent experience and write down notes in each column. Write everything that comes to mind, don’t censor yourself. It's okay if categories overlap or feel blurry.
Once done with writing, discuss the notes. Start with Glad to warm up the before moving to harder emotions, especially when in a group. Listen without immediately problem-solving. Acknowledge shared feelings.
After discussing, try to identify main themes and actions you can take: What's causing the negative emotions? What patterns do you see? What needs to change and how? Capture your action points so you can review them later.
Tip: It’s important to create psychological safety when using this in a group so people feel comfortable sharing difficult and negative thoughts.
Time needed: 30–40 minutes
Example: After a failed product launch
Your team launched a feature that got poor reception and had to be rolled back. Morale is low. You decide to run a Mad, Sad, Glad session before diving into what to do next.
Mad notes include: frustrated that we didn't talk to customers earlier, angry that leadership pushed for a date despite our concerns, and mad at ourselves for not speaking up when we had doubts.
Sad notes include: disappointed because we worked so hard on this, sad about the impact on team morale, sad we let down the customers who were waiting for it
Glad notes include: glad we rolled it back quickly instead of letting it stay broken, happy the team stuck together through it, grateful for the honest post-mortem we're having now
The session helps the team process the frustration before jumping into solutions. They realise a big theme is "not speaking up when we had concerns" which becomes a focus area for how they want to work differently going forward.
Vault members will get an extended version of this post with 5 frameworks including PDF and Miro templates. They also have access to exclusive deep-dives and toolkits including a facilitation guide (to help you run these in groups).
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Reflecting on Untools in 2025
In April of this year, I restarted this newsletter after it had been quiet for a while. In these past 9 months, I’ve created more content for Untools than I had since its launch back in 2020.
I’m really grateful that you’re one of almost 20,000 subscribers of this newsletter. And a special thanks to over 100 members of Untools Vault – your support means I can continue creating and keeping this newsletter and Untools website free for everyone.
Next year, I'll keep exploring thinking tools and frameworks that help you make better decisions and solve problems.
I wish you all the best in the new year and see you in 2026,
Adam
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