😃🌐🎉 World Emoji Day Extravaganza
Celebrate World Emoji Day by expressing our sprint’s feelings and events through emojis! Let’s decode our project journey and find ways to add even more sparkle to our workflow. Emoji your way to continuous improvement!
Template Columns
🥳👍 Emoji Highlights
Share the joyful moments and successes from the sprint using your favorite emojis!
Base column: What Went Well😬💔 Emoji Oopsies
Use emojis to illustrate what tripped us up or didn’t go as planned this sprint.
Base column: What Went Wrong🚀🔄 Emoji Upgrades
Suggest emoji-powered ideas and actions for smoother teamwork in future sprints.
Base column: What We Want to ImproveAbout this template
The World Emoji Day Extravaganza retrospective invites teams to capture their sprint experiences using emojis, making reflection creative and fun while surfacing meaningful insights for improvement.
When to use this template
Use this retrospective during or near World Emoji Day, or when your team wants to spark creativity and bring energy to routine reflections.
How to facilitate
Welcome the team and introduce the emoji-themed approach, encouraging everyone to express their feelings and experiences with emojis.
Ask participants to add their favorite emojis to the Emoji Highlights column, pairing each selection with a brief explanation of the positive moment.
Next, invite everyone to pick emojis for the Emoji Oopsies column to represent setbacks or issues, and briefly describe each scenario.
Shift focus to the Emoji Upgrades column, where team members suggest improvements or actions using emojis as inspiration, along with a short explanation for each idea.
Review and discuss the entries in each column as a group, decoding the emoji choices and exploring the stories or insights behind them.
Collaboratively prioritize actionable improvement items from the Emoji Upgrades column, ensuring alignment and understanding.
Close the retro by celebrating the most creative emoji usage and sharing final thoughts on how emojis influenced the conversation.
Pro Tips
Encourage team members to get creative and pick less obvious emojis to paint a richer picture.
Pair emojis with a quick sentence to avoid misunderstandings and keep context clear.
Consider using an emoji picker tool or shortcut to ensure access to a wide variety of emojis.
Foster an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable sharing playful as well as serious emoji insights.
FAQ
What if team members aren’t familiar with emoji meanings?
Ask participants to briefly explain their emoji choices. This keeps everyone aligned and surfaces unexpected meanings or insights.
How do I keep the retrospective focused when using emojis?
Set clear expectations that each emoji must be paired with a short, relevant explanation. Balance creativity with clarity during discussions.
Can this template be used outside of World Emoji Day?
Absolutely. This format works anytime the team needs to break routine or inject some fun into regular sprint reviews.
At a glance
- Duration
45–60 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