Top 9 Free Retrospective Templates

Notion's sprint retrospective templates provide an effective way to assess project success, identify opportunities for improvement, and drive continuous improvement across your organization. Customize your templates to meet your specific needs and start taking your team's productivity to the next level.

What Should Retrospective Templates Include?

Choosing the right retrospective template can significantly enhance your team's review process. Here are key components to look for in a Notion retrospective template:

Clear Objectives: The template should clearly define the goals of the retrospective to ensure that every participant understands the purpose and what is expected of them.
Actionable Items: It should facilitate the identification of actionable steps that can be taken post-meeting to improve processes or resolve issues.
Participant Roles: A good template will outline the roles of each participant, helping to structure the discussion and ensure that everyone contributes.
Feedback Mechanisms: Look for templates that include structured ways to gather and organize feedback, which is essential for continuous improvement.

By focusing on these components, you can select a retrospective template that not only fits your team's needs but also enhances productivity and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

What Should Retrospective Templates Avoid?

Choosing the right retrospective template in Notion can significantly impact the effectiveness of your team's reflection sessions. It's important to know what features may hinder rather than help.

Overly Complex Layouts: Templates with too many sections or complicated navigation can confuse users and detract from the main goal of reflection and improvement.
Fixed, Non-Customizable Fields: Avoid templates that don't allow you to modify fields and sections. Flexibility is key to tailoring retrospectives to specific team needs and goals.
Excessive Automation: While some automation can be beneficial, too much can make the retrospective feel impersonal and discourage active participation and honest feedback.

Ultimately, the best retrospective template is one that facilitates clear, concise, and constructive dialogue within your team, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

1Retrospective

Our Retrospective template facilitates efficient post-project reflection. It comes with designated sections for discussing what went well, areas needing improvement, innovative ideas, and future action items. Its interactive feature even logs who added each point, promoting transparency and accountability. This organized approach aids in learning from past experiences and planning effective strategies for future projects.

2Agile retrospective

This is a retrospective template for agile teams using the traditional liked / didn't like / learned / actions method with a voting system.

It displays the various items as cards, which allows adding more content inside each card when required. It also includes the important "kudos" section, where your entire team can celebrate people for a job well done.

A template preview for Agile retrospective

3Software Development Retrospective

The best template to run a retrospective in notion. It leverages formulas to show only enough information about how many people agree with or want to discuss a subject.

This board has two steps: 1) In the first one, you can add cards and vote without being influenced by other people's votes. 2) In the second step, you can see a summary of how many people voted to agree or discuss without seeing who it was. This helps remove bias when discussing a card.

You can always open the card and see who voted, but you can choose not to. Anonymity is not the goal of this board.

A template preview for Software Development Retrospective

4Synctera's monthly company retro

As a fast-growing startup, Synctera runs monthly retros across the whole company to keep priorities straight and feedback flowing. These syncs used to take a full day — now they take one hour in Notion.

A template preview for Synctera's monthly company retro

5Agile Retrospective Template

Identify how to improve teamwork by reflecting on what worked, what didn’t, and why. Run a Retrospective with your team every couple of weeks or at the end of a project milestone and track the session using this template

A template preview for Agile Retrospective Template

64Ls Retrospective Template

The Four Ls retrospective is an excellent way for teams to gain a more in-depth understanding of what occurred during the sprint and identify areas for improvement. It encourages team members to be critical of their work and allows the team to identify and implement concrete steps for improvement. It is also simple to implement and understand, making it a valuable tool for any team using an Agile development framework

A template preview for 4Ls Retrospective Template

7Sailboat Retrospective

The Sailboat Retrospective Notion template is a tool that helps teams evaluate their project, sprint, or overall process performance. It outlines 4 steps to reflect on sprint goals, strengths, blockers, and future ambitions. The template uses the analogy of a SAILBOAT heading toward sprint goals while dealing with anchors and rocks. The template provides a dedicated space for teams to identify actionable steps for improvement, as well as a parking lot to keep the team meeting on track. Additionally, it promotes recognizing and appreciating team members' hard work and accomplishments.

A template preview for Sailboat Retrospective

8Meeting Tracker

Track 1-1 or Retro activities

9Run Retrospectives with Rootly

A good retrospective is key to helping companies improve their overall system reliability. This template provides incident response teams with a quick and an organized way to create retrospectives following an incident. This will not only save time for the team, but also document all content in a consistent manner.

A template preview for Run Retrospectives with Rootly

Closing Thoughts

Utilizing these templates streamlines the retrospective process, ensuring that teams can focus on meaningful discussion rather than setup. They foster a structured yet flexible environment for feedback and improvement.

Adopting these tools not only saves time but also enhances team cohesion and productivity. Start implementing them in your next session to see immediate benefits in team dynamics and project outcomes.

What is a Sprint Retrospective?

A Sprint Retrospective is a meeting that occurs after a sprint ends, where team members collectively discuss what went well, what didn't, and how processes can be improved for future sprints.

What is Continuous Improvement?

Continuous Improvement in the context of retrospectives refers to the ongoing practice of identifying and implementing incremental changes to enhance team performance and efficiency.

What is Action Items Tracking?

Action Items Tracking involves monitoring the progress of actionable steps agreed upon during retrospectives to ensure they are completed and to assess their impact on team performance.