Yes, GoRetro is completely Free.
GoRetro was made by a super talented developer friends who believe sprint retrospectives are a crucial part of the development process, and such a tool should NOT cost money.
Through using and scouring for such a tool, we ended up being inspired by the subject matter and creating our own aggregation of the features to grant most benefits to software developers, including boards, actions items, happiness index and more.
Of course we're asked:
- how do you make money?
- is it Freemium (with paying features coming later)?
- ...and how would you make money to keep your lights on?
Those are all valid questions, so we'll answer them quickly:
- We're not looking to make money from GoRetro; we have our day jobs which keep our fridge stocked (for now) :)
- GoRetro is a completely Free tool which will remain Free (not Freemium) and not-for-profit, with new updates to be included in the Forever Free GoRetro promise.
- and regarding keeping the lights on, we got some sponsors (i.e international legal firm and an accounting firm) which provide the needed funds to keep this project alive, and we will add their logo in the product next year or so.
And in reality, all our expenses are cloud and we each have shit loads of credits from GCP for at least a year forward, so we don't even need the sponsorship money right this instant.
Our vision is to create a community and knowledge sharing base.
In any case we don't have any intention to sell data, this would be illegal as far as we know.
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.
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.
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.
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: 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An Action Item card may be changed back to a regular card.
In the card settings, select to change card type to regular.
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
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;