🏴☠️⚙️ Pirate Engineers' Agile Quest
Ahoy, agile crew! Set sail as pirate engineers, building and debugging your way to buried treasure. Reflect on what tools to sharpen, anchors to drop, and sails to keep hoisted for even smoother voyages ahead!
Template Columns
🛠️ Forge New Tools
What new skills or practices should we start to boost our pirate engineering prowess?
Base column: Start⚓ Drop Heavy Anchors
What should we stop doing to keep our ship sailing swiftly and avoid dangerous reefs?
Base column: Stop⛵ Keep Sails Hoisted
What habits, teamwork, or strategies should we continue to ensure smooth sailing?
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
A pirate‑themed retrospective where the crew decides new tools to forge, anchors to drop, and sails to keep hoisted for continuous improvement.
When to use this template
Use when the team wants a fun, action‑oriented review that balances starting, stopping, and continuing items, especially after a mixed‑outcome sprint.
How to facilitate
Set the scene by reading the pirate story and reminding the purpose of the quest
Create three columns on the board: Forge New Tools, Drop Heavy Anchors, Keep Sails Hoisted
Give each participant 3‑5 sticky notes to write observations and place them in the appropriate column
Group similar notes, discuss each cluster, and vote on the top two items per column using dot voting
Turn the top items into concrete action items: assign owners, define next steps, and set due dates
Close the quest by summarizing decisions, thanking the crew, and noting where the action board will be stored
Pro Tips
Encourage pirate language to boost engagement but keep focus on real outcomes
Limit each participant to three ideas per column to keep the board manageable
Use a timer for each discussion segment to maintain momentum
FAQ
What if the team struggles to generate new tool ideas?
Prompt them with recent blockers, ask what skills would have prevented those issues, or use a quick ‘what‑if’ scenario to spark ideas.
How can we prevent dominant voices from steering the discussion?
Start with silent writing, then use dot voting so ideas rise based on collective preference, not speaker volume.
Can this format work for larger groups?
Yes, split the team into smaller pods to fill the columns, then bring each pod’s top items to the full group for final voting.
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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