🎡🍿 State Fair Food Frenzy
Step right up! Sample the sweet and savory successes of our project while deciding which flavors to add, skip, or savor again. Let’s craft a blue-ribbon experience, one bite at a time!
Template Columns
🍔 Fresh Bites to Fry
Suggest new ideas or practices we should introduce, just like trying new fair foods!
Base column: Start🍩 Toss the Stale Snacks
Call out habits or processes to leave behind, like skipping the soggy funnel cake.
Base column: Stop🍿 Keep Poppin’ Winners
Highlight the tasty traditions or successes worth repeating, just like your favorite classic fair treats.
Base column: ContinueAbout this template
State Fair Food Frenzy is a playful, engaging retrospective that helps teams identify new practices to try, old habits to leave behind, and proven successes to repeat, all through fun food-inspired metaphors.
When to use this template
Use this template when your team needs fresh perspective or energy, especially after a sprint that felt routine or before starting something new. It's great for breaking the ice and encouraging creative thinking about continuous improvement.
How to facilitate
Introduce the State Fair Food Frenzy theme, explaining each column's metaphor to set a lighthearted tone.
Give everyone a few quiet minutes to brainstorm ideas for each column: new practices to try, things to stop, and successes to keep.
Invite team members to share their suggestions by posting them to the appropriate columns in the online board.
Group similar or duplicate ideas together, involving the team in clustering and clarifying any ambiguous notes.
Guide a discussion through each column: discuss feasible fresh ideas, agree on what to stop, and celebrate wins worth repeating.
Facilitate the team in prioritizing and selecting concrete actions, ensuring every category leads to commitments or takeaways.
Wrap up by reflecting on the retrospective's mood and capturing any feedback for improving future sessions.
Pro Tips
Play some upbeat background music to match the fair theme and energize the group.
Use food-related icebreakers or ask team members to share their favorite fair snack at the start.
Encourage everyone to contribute to all columns to get a wide range of input and avoid bias towards one category.
If energy is lagging, add a timebox challenge for fast, fun idea generation.
Visual metaphors work great—consider using images or emojis beyond the template to amplify engagement.
FAQ
What if the team struggles with the food theme?
Offer simple explanations and reassure everyone that the food metaphors just make the session fun—it's the ideas that count.
How do you keep discussions from getting off track with a playful theme?
Set expectations at the start about focusing on outcomes. Use gentle facilitation to bring the team back if conversation wanders.
Can this work with very serious or analytical teams?
Yes—adjust the level of playfulness to your team's comfort while still using the three columns for constructive input.
How can we ensure action items come from the retro?
Always wrap up by translating key discussion points into specific owners and deadlines, regardless of the retro's theme.
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At a glance
- Duration
45–60 min
- Team Size
4-10 people
- Columns
3 columns
- Base Format
Start, Stop, Continue
Tags
Ready to get started?
Use this template to run your next retrospective