Retrospective cards - how to use

Inspiration mode

This is the simplest way to use these cards. Put all the cards face up on the table. You do this preferably in rows per theme.

As a retro facilitator, you pick the questions you want to discuss with the team.

Chaos mode

Needed material

Deck of cards
1 die
Paper/sticky notes & pens to capture ideas/context and actions

How?

Sort the cards into piles based on their theme. Place each pile face down beneath the corresponding theme card.

Roll the dice to select a theme. Flip the top card from the chosen theme's pile face up.
As a team, discuss and answer the question on the card. Record any insights and actions before rolling again for the next card. The
retrospective ends when the timebox runs out or the team has captured enough actions.

Variation - Chaos meets speed!

This variant is perfect for teams short of time or looking to create lots of insights in rapid succession.
Each round has a timer for 5 minutes only:

1 minute to respond to the question
2 minutes to note insights
2 minutes to capture an action

Remember, an imperfect action is better than a perfect inaction!

What about distributed teams?

I created a randomizer that should allow you to pick a random card per theme. Check this page to try it out. You will still need a die (physical or virtual - maybe even an app) to determine the theme.

Board game mode

Needed material

Deck of cards
1 pawn per participant
1 die
Game board (download the PDF here)
Paper/sticky notes & pens to capture ideas/context and actions

How?

Sort the cards into piles based on their theme. Place each pile face down beneath the corresponding theme card.

Roll the die to determine the number of positions your pawn can move.

Pick a card of the corresponding theme.

Variation

You could choose to 1 only 1 pawn for the entire team.

Story telling mode

Each team member gets 6 cards. Someone draws a card from the remaining deck and puts it on the table. That’s the question
you will discuss.

For the cards in hand only the top part is relevant. You can ignore the questions that are on them.

The cards in hand will be played as a theme. They are used to discuss the question on the table through a different lens.

Generic rules

Remove all the cards without a question!
Discuss a question for a maximum of 5 minutes before moving on to the next one.
Shuffle all remaining cards
Deal every player 6 cards.
Now draw a question from the deck.
Players play a card face down.
When all played a card, flip the cards face up.

Variation 1 - Just One or All

Follow the generic rules first
Remove duplicate themes and see
which unique theme remains. Evaluate:

No unique theme:
Discard and draw a new card.
All the same theme:
Discard but no one draws new cards.
One or more unique themes:
The participants with the unique cards don't draw a new card, all others do.

Discuss the unique themes one by one.

Play a new round of cards on the same question until a 'How' card is unique. If so, all participants write down one single improvement or solution.

If a player has 4 of the same themes in hand, discard them and draw new ones.

The winner is the first one that has one card left in hand. This one card becomes the NEW question. Now play again.

Variation 2 - The more, the merrier

Follow the generic rules first.

All participants choose a theme to address the question
The most chosen theme wins, e.g. "What"
Discuss the question through the "What" lens
When someone thinks you have discussed long enough, they can put a card face down (with Chris' face up) as a "Enough, let's move on".
You can vote for another theme or choose another card.