💡⚡ Idea Storm
Gather your thoughts like lightning, spark creativity, and navigate the storm of ideas to power our next sprint.
Template Columns
🚀 Launch New Sparks
Identify fresh ideas and initiatives to ignite our workflow.
Base column: Start🛑 Douse Dead Clouds
Highlight practices that dampen creativity and should be halted.
Base column: Stop🔄 Keep the Current Currents
Maintain the brainstorming habits that keep ideas flowing.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
Idea Storm is a fast‑paced, creativity‑focused retrospective that surfaces new ideas, stops blockers, and reinforces effective brainstorming habits.
When to use this template
Use when the team needs fresh initiatives for the upcoming sprint or wants to revitalize its idea‑generation process.
How to facilitate
Kick off by stating the goal: generate new ideas, stop what hinders creativity, and keep what works, and set a timer for each activity
Create three columns on the virtual board named Launch New Sparks, Douse Dead Clouds, and Keep the Current Currents
Ask each participant to silently add sticky notes to the appropriate column for the full timebox
Group similar sticky notes together and invite brief explanations from the owners
Run a dot‑voting round to surface the top two or three items in each column
Turn the top Launch ideas into sprint backlog items, decide concrete steps to stop Douse items, and commit to keep the Current habits
Pro Tips
Encourage wild, out‑of‑the‑box ideas in the Launch column; later you can filter for feasibility
Use a quick “silent clustering” step before discussion to reduce bias and give everyone equal voice
Limit each sticky note to one concise idea to keep the board readable and the voting focused
FAQ
What if the team runs out of ideas for the Launch column?
Prompt with open‑ended questions like “What problem would we love to solve?” or “Which customer need is unmet?” to spark fresh thinking.
How do we handle disagreements on what should be stopped?
Facilitate a brief “why” discussion for each Douse item, then use a quick thumbs‑up/down poll to reach consensus.
Can we reuse this format for longer retrospectives?
Yes, extend the timebox for each phase or add a reflection step at the end to review how the chosen actions performed in the next sprint.
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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