🔥🍗 Smoked Chicken Wings Cook-Off
Gather 'round the grill! In this BBQ-inspired retro, let’s spice up our teamwork by grilling up fresh ideas, cutting out what’s burnt, and savoring what’s perfectly cooked. Let’s turn up the heat for our next sprint!
Template Columns
🥄 New Marinades to Try (Start)
Suggest fresh methods or ideas we should try to add more flavor to our process.
Base column: Start🗑️ Burnt Bits to Toss (Stop)
Call out practices that left a bitter taste and should be removed from our workflow.
Base column: Stop🍗 Secret Recipes to Keep (Continue)
Highlight reliable actions or habits that keep the team cooking with confidence.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
The Smoked Chicken Wings Cook-Off retrospective uses a fun BBQ theme to help teams reflect on what new approaches to try, what practices to eliminate, and which team habits are worth keeping.
When to use this template
This template is perfect when your team needs creative energy, wants to shake up their process, or after a challenging sprint where a lighter mood can help engagement and honesty.
How to facilitate
Open with a brief welcome, set the BBQ mood, and explain the meaning behind each column to the team.
Ask team members to reflect individually and add their cards to each column: New Marinades to Try for new ideas, Burnt Bits to Toss for actions to stop, and Secret Recipes to Keep for practices to continue.
Invite everyone to share and discuss their cards in each column, encouraging stories, examples, and clarifications.
Facilitate a group vote to identify the most impactful ideas in each column.
Guide the team to agree on a few actionable changes to experiment with for the next sprint, and clarify owners where needed.
Wrap up with quick appreciations, tying back to the BBQ theme and reinforcing enthusiasm for your team's evolving 'recipe.'
Pro Tips
Encourage everyone to frame suggestions in positive, improvement-oriented language to keep the mood light.
Use BBQ or food metaphors to make discussions memorable and less intimidating, especially for difficult topics.
Leave a little extra time for the 'marinades' (new ideas) so fresh suggestions have space to develop.
Play soft background grill or summer sounds to boost engagement if your team enjoys it.
FAQ
What if team members struggle to come up with 'new marinades'?
Prompt with questions about recent challenges, things they've wanted to try, or ideas seen in other teams or companies.
How do we keep feedback light when discussing things to stop?
Remind everyone to focus on process, not people, and reinforce the playful BBQ metaphor to keep the tone constructive.
Can this template work for teams new to retrospectives?
Yes, its lighthearted theme actually helps lower barriers and spark conversation for new or quieter teams.
At a glance
- Duration
30–40 min
- Team Size
3-10 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
Start, Stop, Continue
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective