🩸🔪 Friday the 13th Horror Sprint
Enter the haunted hall of our sprint, uncover the curses (stops), summon the spells (starts), and keep the surviving rituals (continues) to slay the backlog!
Template Columns
🧟♂️ Spawn New Horrors
Identify fresh initiatives to kick off, like summoning new scares for the next sprint.
Base column: Start🛑 Banished Curses
Highlight practices that haunt the team and should be eliminated.
Base column: Stop👻 Eternal Hauntings
Keep the effective rituals that protect us from the darkness.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
A spooky, horror‑themed sprint retrospective that identifies new ideas, eliminates painful practices, and reinforces what’s working.
When to use this template
Use when the team wants a fun, themed way to surface blockers and celebrate successes, especially after a high‑intensity sprint.
How to facilitate
Gather the team in a virtual or physical space and set the horror theme, reminding everyone of the three columns: Spawn New Horrors, Banished Curses, Eternal Hauntings
Give each participant 3–5 minutes to write down items for each column on sticky notes or digital cards, using the column prompts
Collect the notes, group similar items, and discuss each column, starting with Spawn New Horrors to decide which new initiatives to start next sprint
Move to Banished Curses, vote on the most painful blockers and agree on concrete actions to eliminate them
Finish with Eternal Hauntings, highlight the rituals that should continue and assign owners to keep them alive
Summarize the agreed actions, capture them in the sprint backlog, and close with a brief thematic chant or fun acknowledgment
Pro Tips
Use a timer for each brainstorming phase to keep energy high
Encourage spooky language but keep focus on actionable outcomes
Limit each item to one sentence to avoid vague statements
Assign a ‘ghost‑keeper’ to track the continuation items across sprints
FAQ
What if the team struggles to come up with horror‑themed ideas?
Remind them that the theme is a fun framing; they can phrase any improvement as a ‘spell’ or ‘curse’ and focus on the underlying action.
How do we ensure the ‘Continue’ items don’t become stale?
Review the Eternal Hauntings at the start of each sprint and ask if the ritual still adds value; retire any that no longer serve the team.
Can this format work for larger teams?
For groups larger than eight, split into two smaller circles, each using its own board, then combine the top‑voted items in a plenary session.
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At a glance
- Duration
45–60 min
- Team Size
4-12 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
Start, Stop, Continue
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective