Running Your First Retrospective

This guide walks you through creating, facilitating, and completing your first retrospective in Unpack. By the end, your team will have shared feedback, voted on priorities, discussed key themes, and committed to concrete action items.

Before you begin

Make sure you have the following in place before starting your first retrospective:

• An organization set up in Unpack.
• A team created with at least two members (including yourself).
• Team members who have signed in at least once, so they can access the retro.

Step 1: Create a new retrospective

1. Navigate to your team's page from the sidebar.
2. Click the New retrospective button in the top-right corner of the team dashboard.
3. Give the retrospective a title. This is optional — if left blank, Unpack generates one based on the date and sprint number (e.g., "Sprint 14 Retro — Feb 17").
4. The retrospective is created in draft status. It is visible only to you until you advance it to the first phase.

Step 2: Choose a template

Templates define the columns that participants write cards into. Unpack includes several popular formats, and you can create custom ones.

Built-in templates

• Start / Stop / Continue — the classic format. What should we start doing, stop doing, and continue doing?
• Mad / Sad / Glad — an emotion-driven format that surfaces how people felt during the sprint.
• 4Ls (Liked / Learned / Lacked / Longed For) — encourages reflection on both positive experiences and unmet needs.
• Sailboat — a metaphor-based format with Wind (what propels us), Anchor (what holds us back), Rocks (risks), and Island (goals).
• DAKI (Drop / Add / Keep / Improve) — action-oriented columns that map directly to behavioral changes.
• What Went Well / What Didn't / Action Items — a streamlined three-column format that ends with immediate commitments.

Custom templates

If none of the built-in templates fit your needs, you can create a custom one.

1. On the template selection screen, click Create custom template.
2. Add columns by giving each one a name and optional description.
3. Drag columns to reorder them.
4. Save the template. It will be available for all future retrospectives in this team.

Step 3: Invite participants

All team members are automatically included in the retrospective. If you need to invite someone who is not on the team (a guest, a manager, or someone from another squad), you can add them as a participant.

1. From the retrospective draft screen, click Manage participants.
2. Search for organization members to add as guests, or share the retrospective link directly.
3. Guest participants have the same abilities as team members within the retro, but they do not gain permanent access to the team.

Step 4: Walk through each phase

Unpack retrospectives follow a structured phase flow that guides your team from individual reflection to group discussion to concrete commitments. As the facilitator, you control when the team advances to each phase.

Check-in phase

The retrospective begins with a quick mood check-in. Each participant selects an emoji or rating that represents how they are feeling about the sprint. This is a lightweight icebreaker that helps the facilitator gauge the room before diving into feedback.

• Check-ins are anonymous by default.
• Results are shown as an aggregate summary once everyone has responded.
• The facilitator can see how many people have checked in and can advance when ready.

Reflect phase

This is where participants write their feedback. Each person adds cards to the template columns, one thought per card. Cards are private during this phase — no one can see what others are writing.

• There is no limit to how many cards a person can add, but encourage concise, focused cards (one idea per card).
• An optional countdown timer can be displayed to keep the phase time-boxed. Set this from the facilitator toolbar.
• Cards are anonymous by default. Authors are only shown when a facilitator turns on the team-level "Show names" setting.

Group phase

After everyone has written their cards, all cards are revealed and the facilitator (or any participant) can group related cards together into themes.

1. Drag one card onto another to create a group. A group title will be suggested automatically, or you can name it manually.
2. Continue grouping until similar cards are clustered together. Ungrouped cards remain as standalone items.
3. Groups make the voting and discussion phases more efficient, since the team votes on themes rather than individual cards.

Vote phase

Each participant receives a fixed number of votes (configurable in team settings, default is 5). Votes are cast on cards or card groups to indicate which topics the team considers most important to discuss.

• Click a card or group to cast a vote. Click again to add another vote (if you have votes remaining).
• You can spread your votes across many items or concentrate them on a few.
• Vote counts are hidden until the facilitator ends the vote phase, preventing bias.

Discuss phase

Cards and groups are now sorted by vote count, highest first. The facilitator walks through each item and leads the team discussion.

• Click Start discussion on an item to highlight it for the team. A timer starts automatically if configured.
• Use the Next button to move through items in priority order.
• During discussion, anyone can add comments or reactions to cards in real time.
• You do not need to discuss every item — focus on the highest-voted themes and move on when the team reaches consensus or time runs out.

Commit phase

The final working phase is where the team turns insights into action. Create action items based on the discussion.

1. Click Add action item to create a new commitment.
2. Write a clear, specific action item. Good action items are concrete and measurable (e.g., "Add integration tests for the payment flow" rather than "Write more tests").
3. Assign an owner — the person responsible for completing the action item.
4. Optionally, set a due date. Unpack will send reminders as the date approaches.
5. Link the action item to a specific card or group to preserve context.

Step 5: Close the retrospective

When the commit phase is complete, click Close retrospective from the facilitator toolbar. This finalizes the retro and triggers several things:

• Action items are added to the team's action item backlog and appear on the dashboard.
• A summary email is sent to all participants (if email notifications are enabled).
• The retrospective moves to read-only mode and is preserved in the team's retro history.
• Sprint health metrics are updated on the team dashboard.

After closing, you can always revisit the retrospective from the team's retro list to review cards, discussions, and action items. Closed retrospectives cannot be edited, but action items can still be updated and marked complete.

Tips for a great first retrospective

• Keep it short. Aim for 45 to 60 minutes for your first session. You can adjust timing as the team gets comfortable with the format.
• Set ground rules. Remind the team that cards are anonymous and that the goal is improvement, not blame.
• Use timers. Time-boxing each phase prevents the retrospective from dragging on and keeps energy high.
• Follow up on action items. The most effective retrospective teams are the ones that actually complete their commitments between sprints.
• Rotate facilitators. After your first retro, consider rotating the facilitator role among team members to keep perspectives fresh.