🍦🍨 Ice Cream Dream Sprint
Dive into a sundae of reflections—share the flavors of success, the melted moments, and the sprinkles that keep us moving forward!
Template Columns
🍦 New Flavors to Try
Identify fresh ideas or practices to introduce, like adding a new topping to our process.
Base column: Start🛑 Melted Messes to Freeze
Highlight habits or obstacles that are causing drips and should be halted.
Base column: Stop🍨 Keep the Sweet Spot
Celebrate the practices that are working well and should stay on the menu.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
A fun, ice‑cream themed sprint retrospective that surfaces new ideas, stops drippy habits, and reinforces sweet practices.
When to use this template
Use when the team wants an engaging, light‑hearted way to surface improvements and celebrate successes after a sprint.
How to facilitate
Introduce the ice‑cream metaphor and explain the three columns: New Flavors to Try, Melted Messes to Freeze, Keep the Sweet Spot
Give each participant three sticky notes (or virtual cards) per column and ask them to write concrete ideas or observations
Collect the notes, place them in the appropriate columns on the board, and allow a brief silent review
Facilitate a round‑robin discussion, letting owners elaborate on the most impactful items and using dot‑voting to prioritize
Summarize the agreed actions, assign owners and due dates for new flavors, define stop‑gap measures for melted messes, and note the practices to keep
Pro Tips
Limit each person to three items per column to keep the board focused and the conversation concise
Use a quick dot‑vote with a limited number of votes per participant to surface the highest‑impact items
Capture the final action items in a shared document immediately so remote members can reference them later
FAQ
What if the team runs out of ideas for new flavors?
Prompt with specific questions like “What process could we experiment with next sprint?” or ask each person to share one improvement they’ve observed.
How do we prevent dominant voices from taking over the discussion?
Set a rule that each person speaks for a maximum of one minute per item and use a virtual hand‑raise or talking token to manage turn‑taking.
Can this format be used for longer retrospectives?
Yes, you can extend the voting and deep‑dive phases or split the session into two halves, but keep the core three‑column structure to maintain focus.
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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