🍹🌈 Cocktail Carnival

Raise your glasses! Sip through our sprint, celebrate the sparkling wins, stir up the sour spots, and blend fresh ideas for the next round of agile brilliance.
45–60 min
4-12 people
Based on: What Went Well, What Went Wrong, What We Want to Improve
🍹🌈 Cocktail Carnival

Template Columns

🍸✨ Shaken Successes

Toast the victories and smooth flows that made our sprint sparkle.

Base column: What Went Well
🥃⚡️ Sour Sips

Identify the bitter bites and fizz that fizzled our momentum.

Base column: What Went Wrong
🍹🔧 Mixology Mastery

Craft actionable tweaks to perfect our cocktail of collaboration.

Base column: What We Want to Improve

About this template

A lively, cocktail‑themed sprint retrospective that celebrates wins, surfaces pain points, and creates concrete improvement actions.

When to use this template

Use when you want to inject energy and a celebratory vibe into sprint reviews, especially after a milestone or when morale needs a boost.

How to facilitate

1

Kick off by sharing the Cocktail Carnival theme, display a fun background, and explain the three columns

2

Ask participants to write their Shaken Successes on virtual sticky notes, one per win, and place them in the orange column

3

Facilitate a quick round where each person briefly reads a few successes, celebrating each

4

Move to the Sour Sips column: have team members add notes about challenges or bottlenecks they experienced

5

Group similar sour notes together and discuss the most impactful issues, keeping the conversation focused on facts

6

Transition to Mixology Mastery: for each top sour issue, brainstorm concrete tweaks or experiments, writing them as action items in the blue column

7

Vote on the top three actions using dot voting, assign owners, and set due dates

8

Close the session by raising a virtual toast, summarizing the agreed actions, and thanking everyone for their contributions

Pro Tips

Use a timer for each column to keep energy high and prevent over‑discussion

Encourage the use of emojis or GIFs on sticky notes to keep the cocktail vibe playful

If the team is large, split into smaller breakout groups for the Sour Sips discussion, then reconvene

Capture action items in a shared board immediately so they’re visible to the whole team

Start the session with a quick ice‑breaker, like sharing your favorite cocktail, to set the mood

FAQ

What if the team runs out of time to discuss all sour notes?

Prioritize by grouping similar items and vote for the top two or three issues to focus on, saving the rest for a follow‑up.

How do we ensure action items are actually implemented?

Assign a clear owner and due date to each action, add them to the sprint backlog, and review progress in the next retrospective.

Can this format work for non‑technical teams?

Yes, the cocktail metaphor is flexible; simply adapt the language to suit the team’s context while keeping the three‑column structure.

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At a glance

  • Duration

    45–60 min

  • Team Size

    4-12 people

  • Columns

    3 columns

  • Base Format

    What Went Well, What Went Wrong, What We Want to Improve

Tags

celebration
action-oriented
team health
remote-friendly
fun

Ready to get started?

Use this template to run your next retrospective