🏝️💰 Bounty Day Bonanza
Gather your crew for Bounty Day, where we hunt for golden opportunities and dodge hidden traps in our project. Let’s claim new treasures, drop dead weight, and keep what makes our journey prosperous!
Template Columns
✨ Bountiful Beginnings
Share new actions or ideas we should set sail with to find greater bounty.
Base column: Start⚓ Abandon Ship!
Identify practices and obstacles we should toss overboard to avoid sinking our crew.
Base column: Stop🪙 Treasure Hoard
Highlight which golden practices we should keep safe in our chest for future adventures.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
The Bounty Day Bonanza retrospective invites your team to uncover new opportunities, let go of unhelpful habits, and identify valued practices to continue. Team members examine what's next, what to leave behind, and what to safeguard for the journey ahead.
When to use this template
Use this retrospective after major milestones, at the end of sprints, or when the team feels stuck and needs a creative way to re-energize. It's great when you want to spotlight both opportunities and obstacles.
How to facilitate
Welcome the team with the Bounty Day theme and set the stage by explaining the goals and column meanings.
Invite everyone to quietly add reflections to each column: new ideas for Bountiful Beginnings, obstacles for Abandon Ship!, and valuable practices for Treasure Hoard.
Once all ideas are posted, review each column together, clustering similar or related items to spot patterns or themes.
Lead a discussion on the most important or frequent items in each column, encouraging everyone to share stories or reasons behind their suggestions.
Facilitate a group vote or prioritization exercise to focus in on top new actions, urgent items to drop, and key routines to keep.
Decide on clear, actionable next steps, assigning owners where appropriate, and capture them for follow-up.
Close by reflecting briefly on what the team learned and celebrating wins uncovered during the session.
Pro Tips
Lean into the pirate/treasure theme to spark creativity and reduce meeting fatigue.
Prompt with playful examples if participation is slow, but keep the focus on real team issues.
Limit the number of items per person to encourage thoughtful contributions rather than volume.
Check in midway through the session to keep energy high and refocus if conversation wanders.
FAQ
What if our team struggles to come up with new actions or ideas?
Break into small groups to brainstorm together or offer prompts about recent challenges and success stories to spark ideas.
How do we keep the session engaging for remote participants?
Use the pirate theme, encourage cameras on, and invite everyone to participate through chat and visual tools to maintain engagement.
What should we do if the same obstacles keep appearing in Abandon Ship!?
Acknowledge recurring issues and facilitate a focused discussion on underlying causes to develop new strategies for lasting change.
Can this retro format be used for non-software teams?
Absolutely. The Bounty Day Bonanza format is adaptable and works for any team aiming to improve their collaborative journey.
At a glance
- Duration
45–60 min
- Team Size
4-10 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
Start, Stop, Continue
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective