Harry Potter
A themed retrospective that wraps familiar questions in the magic of Hogwarts. Felix Felicis collects the good things, Baruffio's Brain Elixir what the team learned, Petrificus Totalus what slowed it down, and the Triwizard Cup the shout-outs, all closing with clear action items. The playful framing lowers the guard and invites more candid feedback.
Good things!
Roman
The release went out clean on the first try
Maria
Support and engineering finally share one triage channel
Learned!
Anna
Learned the retry logic double-charges on timeout
Daria
Learned our largest account never uses the feature we rebuilt
What slowed us down?!
Maria
Waiting three days for staging access
Kirill
Two rewrites of the same spec in one sprint
Shout outs!
Daria
Mia stayed late to unblock the migration and documented it
Roman
Whole team covered for Alex during the incident
Take things into consideration
Kirill
Give staging access on day one of onboarding — Ivan
Anna
Freeze the spec after planning; changes go to next sprint
Harry Potter Retrospective Template
Felix Felicis
- What went well during the sprint?
- What were the highlights of the sprint?
Baruffio's Brain Elixir
- What did the team learn during the sprint?
- What new knowledge or skills did the team acquire?
Petrificus Totalus
- What hindered the team's progress during the sprint?
- What obstacles did the team face?
Triwizard Cup
- Who deserves recognition for their contribution to the sprint?
- Who went above and beyond during the sprint?
Action Items
- What actions should the team take based on the feedback from this retrospective?
- What can the team do to improve for the next sprint?
Similar templates
Other formats teams pair with this one — open any of them as a board in one click.
KALM Retrospective
KALM frames improvement around the value the team's practices deliver. Participants decide what to keep because it works, what to add that's currently missing, what to do more of and what to do less of. The four simple verbs make it easy to tune day-to-day habits without a heavy process.
Marie Kondo Method
Inspired by the famous tidying method, this retrospective asks the team to declutter the way it works. Practices that bring joy are worth keeping, those that went wrong are thrown out, and the rest are recycled — improved and reused. The metaphor turns process cleanup into a surprisingly enjoyable conversation.
Game of Thrones
A themed retrospective that maps the team's reality onto a fantasy kingdom. The castle is what the team is great at, the hole the current problems, the wall what could make it stronger, and the White Walkers the looming risks and challenges. The story-driven framing makes a strategic conversation feel engaging and easy to join.
Love - Want - Hate - Learn
An emotionally honest format that gives feelings a clear place in the retrospective. Participants finish four sentences — I love, I want to, I hate and now I know that — to surface what energizes them, what they wish for, what frustrates them and what they've realized. The personal phrasing invites genuine, first-person reflection.
Kudos Retrospective
A retrospective that opens with gratitude before getting down to business. Kudos lets the team recognize each other first, then it reviews what went well, what to improve and the action items to follow up on. Starting with appreciation sets a positive, psychologically safe tone for the harder parts of the conversation.
