👻🕸️ Horror Haunt
Enter the haunted house of our sprint, where we confront lurking bugs, exorcise bad habits, and keep the chilling successes that keep us alive. Let’s turn fear into fuel for the next sprint!
Template Columns
🧟♀️ Spawn New Rituals
Identify fresh practices to summon momentum.
Base column: Start🚫👻 Banished Phantoms
Highlight toxic habits to exorcise from the workflow.
Base column: Stop🔮🕯️ Keep the Curse Alive
Maintain the spooky strengths that empower the team.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
A spooky sprint retrospective that surfaces bugs, bad habits, and strengths using a haunted‑house theme.
When to use this template
Use when the team needs a fresh, energizing lens to discuss pain points and celebrate wins, especially after a challenging sprint.
How to facilitate
Gather the team in a virtual meeting, set a Halloween background and explain the three columns: new rituals, banished phantoms, and keep the curse alive
Ask each participant to write up to three items per column on virtual sticky notes, focusing on practices to start, habits to stop, and strengths to keep
Collect the notes, group similar ideas together, and let each group share the story behind their haunted items
Vote on the top two items in each column using emoji reactions or dot voting to surface priority actions
Translate the top‑voted items into concrete sprint actions, assign owners, and close with a quick spooky cheer to reinforce commitment
Pro Tips
Use themed emojis for voting to keep energy high and maintain the horror vibe
Limit each participant to three items per column to keep the discussion focused and manageable
Capture the final action items on a shared board with a Halloween icon so they are easy to locate later
FAQ
What if the team feels the horror theme is too gimmicky?
Acknowledge the concern, explain that the theme is meant to boost engagement, and simplify the language while keeping the three‑column structure if needed.
How do we prevent dominant voices from taking over the discussion?
Run timed rounds where each person shares one item per column before opening the floor, and rely on silent sticky‑note entry to give everyone equal voice.
What if we run out of time?
Prioritize voting on the most critical items and defer lower‑priority ideas to a follow‑up board or the next retrospective.
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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