🍕🍝 Italian Cuisine Feast
Mangia! Gather ‘round our agile table for a culinary retro inspired by the flavors of Italy. Let’s savor our successes, simmer over setbacks, and cook up new ways to spice up our teamwork!
Template Columns
🍅 Savory Successes
Share the ingredients that made our recent sprint a delicious success.
Base column: What Went Well🥄 Spilled Sauce
Reveal the drips and messes that left a bitter taste in our workflow.
Base column: What Went Wrong🧀 Fresh Recipes
Suggest new ingredients or techniques to improve our next serving of teamwork.
Base column: What We Want to ImproveAbout this template
The Italian Cuisine Feast retrospective guides your team through a flavorful reflection on successes, challenges, and ideas for improvement, all with an Italian twist.
When to use this template
This template is ideal at the end of a sprint or project when the team needs an engaging, metaphor-rich way to reflect, boost morale, and stimulate creativity.
How to facilitate
Welcome the team and introduce the Italian Cuisine Feast theme to set a collaborative, upbeat tone.
Briefly explain the three columns—Savory Successes, Spilled Sauce, and Fresh Recipes—using the culinary metaphors to inspire creative thinking.
Give everyone 5–7 minutes to add their thoughts asynchronously or directly to each column—encourage using Italian food analogies to keep it fun.
Invite team members to read out or group similar points together in each column, starting with Savory Successes to highlight recent wins.
Move on to Spilled Sauce, discussing pain points or missteps with a focus on learning rather than blame.
Transition to Fresh Recipes, brainstorming and prioritizing feasible improvements or experiments for the next sprint.
Agree together on specific action items and assign owners to ensure accountability.
Wrap up with a quick check-out: ask everyone to share their favorite Italian dish or what they're most excited to try in the next sprint.
Pro Tips
Encourage playful language and analogies to make the session feel fresh and engaging.
Link 'Fresh Recipes' suggestions to specific actions you can track in the next sprint rather than leaving them as general ideas.
If energy lags, prompt with food imagery: 'What gave our sprint an espresso shot?' or 'What paired poorly, like pineapple on pizza?'
Set a visible timer for each reflection segment to keep momentum while avoiding rushed discussions.
FAQ
What if not everyone relates to the Italian food theme?
Emphasize that the culinary metaphors are for fun and creativity—it's okay to be literal. Keep the focus on reflection and teamwork.
How can we avoid spending too much time in one column?
Set clear timeboxes for each segment and gently steer the discussion if it lingers too long in one area.
What do we do with the 'Fresh Recipes' ideas after the retro?
Select 1–2 actionable ideas and assign owners. Carry them into your next sprint backlog or improvement plan to ensure follow-through.
At a glance
- Duration
40–55 min
- Team Size
4-10 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
What Went Well, What Went Wrong, What We Want to Improve
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective