FAQ

sprint retrospective?

GoRetro user roles

Account admin

View and manage all subscriptions (add, edit, remove…), create and manage teams (admins, members, boards…)

Team admin

View and manage teams he or she are admins of including respective boards (add, edit, remove...)

Team member

View and create boards within a team, and manage boards created.

Is GoRetro free or 'freemium'? how do you monetize? What’s included in GoRetro?

Yes, GoRetro is completely Free.
GoRetro was made by the super talented team at Acumen, who believe sprint retrospectives are a crucial part of the development process and should NOT cost money for any dev team.

We couldn't find the retro tool we looked for, so we ended up creating our own and sharing it with other software developers: unlimited boards, action items, happiness index, and more.

Of course, we're asked:
- How do you make money?
- Is it Freemium (with paying features coming later)?

Those are valid questions, so here goes:

- We're not looking to make money from GoRetro. We're building a next generation Engineering Intelligence platform and plan to make our revenues there; we'd love to tell you more about it :)
- GoRetro is a completely Free tool that will remain Free (not Freemium), with new updates to be included in the Forever Free GoRetro promise.
GoRetro is a one-stop shop for all your retrospective needs, and our retrospective tool is ready to go right out the gates. Check out GoRetro’s huge kitchen sink of features.

How to run sprint retrospectives in GoRetro

GoRetro makes it easy to run agile team retrospectives. You first begin by inviting all members to participate in a team, as well as assigning a Team Admin to facilitate the retrospective.

Begin by creating a new board on GoRetro. You can make things quick and simple by selecting a a basic template such as 'What went well and what can be improved' or another per your focus, and add 6 votes per person (default)

A sprint retrospective process:

Review previous retrospective

Go over the previous sprint to see what was completed (or not) and discuss any blockers, as well if any action item should be moved to the next sprint.

Short brainstorming session

Request your team members to list issues on cards (each on his/her own) from the previous sprint of what went well and what can be improved.
Team admin should provide 10 minutes for this session.

Merge similar cards

Team admin will read each card and ask members if it should be merged with another and, if approved, merge it.

Team voting on cards

After merging has completed, 5 minutes are given to allow members to vote on the cards they want to discuss. They have 3 votes for what went well and 3 for what to improve.

Discussion and Action items

Once voting has completed, you can sort by votes and select the top 3 cards to discuss as a team. As a team discussion, read the card, and encourage a constructive chat on the issue, what can be done or improved. Repeat this with the following 2 cards if time allows.
With a team (and individual's) agreement on specific action items, such specific tasks can be added to the board along with notifications and reminders to encourage accountability.

It is good to note that Action Items should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.
This final step should take approximately 20 minutes, or until all top 3 cards were discussed.
The above is a basic retrospective format, but it works to get practice and see how helpful it for dev teams, especially remote teams working from home.

Creating a team on GoRetro

Once you’ve created a Free account in GoRetro, log in, and you will immediately see your dashboard.

In your dashboard you can click on "Add team" to create your first team.
Select “Add team”, name your team, and click “OK” to approve.
You’ll arrive at the Teams page, where you now can invite other members by selecting "Invite members by email".
Add the emails of members to invite and select "Invite Members", at which point it will display as “pending” (until they’ve accepted the invite).
Members will receive an email invitation with a link to accept and register at GoRetro. Once completed, they will have access to the team and boards available.

Deleting cards from a GoRetro board

You may delete a card only if:

1) you are the board creator, or

2) the board is enabled so anyone can edit the board.

The latter is available in the edit/cog icon.

Public vs. Private GoRetro boards

Public: a retrospective board with a unique url (difficult to guess) that is open for view to anyone with the link to the board.
Private: a more secure retro board, where only invited members have access, and Account admin may add or remove members. This is better for tighter teams and recurring retros.

Importing an existing board into a new board

Create a new board with the same number of columns as the existing board.
Select settings > import CSV > Upload > [Select the csv file]

Select the columns you’d like to import into the new board.

What is a team on GoRetro?

A team includes a group, a project, or members who run regular retrospectives.
All invited (and accepted) members will be in the team and have viewing access to all boards (editing access where permitted).
You may add unlimited members to a team.

How to show Top Voted cards only

Within the board menu, you can select with a checkbox to display only the Top Voted cards.
Once enabled, only the 5 Top Voted cards will display.

Requesting feedback from Team members

You can request feedback from an individual, a combination, or all team members of a specific board.
When “Request feedback” is selected, and a pop-up will open displaying all board team members to request feedback from, and you may uncheck any you do not wish to send the request to.

Change card type to an Action Item

GoRetro helps development teams stay accountable by making it easy to change any specific card into an Action Item, along with an assignee, due date, and status.
On a specific card, select settings (cog icon) and select to change card type.
As an Action Item, you may select a specific team member as owner of the Action Item and add a due date, and they may edit respectively including providing status.

Change Action Item to a regular card

An Action Item card may be changed back to a regular card.
In the card settings, select to change card type to regular.

What is the Action Items page

GoRetro’s Action Items page combined all open Action Items in one spot to assess team or individual's status and progress.
This page displays all Action Items, allowing you to search by specific boards or members, as well as sort by dates, teams, boards, statuses, and more.
Action Items include conditional formatting by due date:
- 2 days or less before due date: yellow background
- Due date or late: red background

What is the Team Happiness Index

The Team Happiness Index allows every member of a team to provide quick feedback on how they felt during the specific sprint, granting the admins a big picture of the entire dev team's overall feeling, as well as individuals.
The Happiness index is available within every single board, on the right hand-side with a smiling avatar saying: |Happiness" :)
Click the Happiness and select your mood: Very Happy; Happy; Sad; Very Sad;