Team Retrospective Activity Generator
Picks a structured format for running a team retrospective — Start/Stop/Continue, Mad/Sad/Glad, Sailboat — for teams whose retros have gone stale.
What this generator does
Draws a retrospective format. Retros stop working when the format never changes, because people learn what the answers are supposed to be — rotating the format is the standard fix and the reason there are dozens of them.
What you'll get
This generator draws from a hand-checked list of 8 entries. Here is a spread of 6 of them, so you can see the style before you generate:
- Start, Stop, Continue — what should we start, stop, and keep doing?
- Mad, Sad, Glad — sort this sprint's moments into three columns.
- The 4Ls — Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for.
- One word each — everyone sums up the sprint in a single word, then unpacks it.
- Timeline retro — plot the sprint's key moments on a shared timeline first.
- Appreciation round — everyone names one thing a teammate did well this sprint.
A fixed sample of the list, not a live draw — your own results are picked at random from all 8, without repeating until the list runs out. Original authoring for Generate Random — general team-retrospective activity formats.. Last reviewed 2026-07-18.
How to use this tool
- Press generate for a format.
- Run it at your next retrospective.
Common use cases
- Sprint retrospectives
- Team-reflection sessions
- Refreshing a repetitive retro format
Randomness and fairness
Formats are drawn uniformly with the browser's cryptographic random number generator, with no grading by how long they take or how large a team they suit.
For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.
Practical tips
- Read the format before the retro and time-box each stage. Most retro formats overrun by default.
- Change the format when the retro gets quiet, not when it gets difficult.
- Whatever the format, finish with actions that have owners, or the discussion was the whole thing.