📅🌟 Quarterly Time Capsule
Let's seal our wins, lessons, and goals into a quarterly time capsule! Reflect on our past three months, cherish our milestones, and set intentions for the next quarter’s adventure.
Template Columns
⏩ New Habits to Begin
Suggest fresh practices or experiments to launch in our next quarter.
Base column: Start🛑 Outdated Routines to Bury
Identify processes or habits we should leave behind for a better future.
Base column: Stop🔒 Winning Moves to Preserve
Highlight existing strengths and actions we should continue next quarter.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
The Quarterly Time Capsule retrospective helps teams reflect on the past three months by capturing wins, lessons, and intentions. It encourages teams to celebrate progress, retire ineffective practices, and set a positive course for the next quarter.
When to use this template
Use this format at the end of a quarter or major milestone to step back from daily routines, evaluate big-picture progress, and align on future direction.
How to facilitate
Open with a brief welcome and set the intention to step back, reflect, and create your team’s time capsule for the quarter.
Ask everyone to spend a few minutes silently brainstorming ideas for each of the three columns: new habits to begin, outdated routines to bury, and winning moves to preserve.
Invite team members to add their thoughts to the board, aiming for at least one note in each column per person.
Review each column together, grouping related ideas and discussing highlights, surprises, and specific examples.
Facilitate a deeper discussion around which habits you most want to adopt, which routines are holding you back, and what wins should be locked in for next quarter.
Vote on the top action items or themes from each column that the team will commit to carrying forward (or leaving behind).
Conclude by summarizing the outcomes, assigning owners to action items, and encouraging everyone to mark the moment—for example, by sharing one word that sums up their quarter.
Pro Tips
Create a real or digital 'time capsule' document with the team’s commitments so you can open it at the beginning of the next quarter and review progress.
Encourage the team to be honest about routines that no longer serve them—even if they were useful in the past.
Ask for examples or data where possible to make lessons specific and actionable, not just abstract reflections.
Rotate the facilitation role or have a team member co-facilitate to keep the session engaging and inclusive.
FAQ
What if our team struggles to remember details from the last quarter?
Prompt with specific events, releases, or sprint reviews as memory triggers, or share a timeline of key milestones before the session.
How should we decide what to prioritize for action items?
Use voting or team consensus to identify the most impactful habits, routines, and wins to focus on, keeping the list actionable and realistic.
What’s the best way to ensure we follow through on our commitments?
Assign owners to each action and schedule a quarterly revisit or mid-quarter check-in to track progress.
How do we prevent this retrospective from feeling repetitive if we use it every quarter?
Vary facilitation styles, try different collaborative tools, or add creative elements—like time capsule graphics or storytelling.
At a glance
- Duration
50–70 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