Column 1
Start
What new behavior or practice would help the team?
Example cards
- Start refining risky stories before sprint planning.
- Start pairing on unfamiliar services.
- Start checking action items at stand-up once a week.
Ready-to-use template
Start Stop Continue Retrospective
Start Stop Continue turns reflection into three direct choices. It works best when a team already understands the situation and needs clear decisions about behaviors, meetings, or delivery practices.
- Duration
- 30–40 minutes
- Team size
- 3–12 people
- Best for
- Process tuning, team habits, and direct improvement decisions
What each column means
Use the prompts to keep cards specific. The examples show the level of detail that makes discussion and voting useful.
Column 2
Stop
What creates waste, confusion, or avoidable friction?
Example cards
- Stop adding work after the sprint goal is agreed.
- Stop holding status meetings with no decisions.
- Stop merging large changes without a rollout plan.
Column 3
Continue
What is already valuable and should be protected?
Example cards
- Continue sharing demos before release.
- Continue rotating the incident lead.
- Continue writing short decision records.
30–40 minutes agenda
A complete path from framing the room to assigning one concrete follow-up.
- 013 minutes
Frame the review
Name the sprint or project being reviewed, restate the purpose of each column, and remind everyone to describe observable events.
- 027 minutes
Write observations silently
Give everyone uninterrupted time to add one specific observation per card across every column.
- 037 minutes
Share and clarify
Read the cards column by column and let authors add context without debating solutions yet.
- 045 minutes
Group and vote
Combine cards that describe the same pattern, then vote for the themes that would most improve the next iteration.
- 0510 minutes
Discuss the leading themes
Explore causes, consequences, and tradeoffs behind the highest-voted themes while making space for dissenting evidence.
- 065 minutes
Commit to one change
Turn the strongest insight into a small action with an owner, deadline, and signal the team can review next time.
Use this format when
- The team wants direct process changes.
- A previous experiment needs a keep-or-stop decision.
- The retro must end with a short practical action list.
Choose another format when
- The team has not yet surfaced the causes behind a sensitive problem.
- Participants may interpret Stop as permission to blame individuals.
- The group needs emotional processing before making decisions.
Facilitation tips
- Phrase cards as team behaviors, not judgments about people.
- Ask what should stop so that a new practice has room to start.
- Protect valuable Continue items from being overshadowed by complaints.
- Limit commitments to changes the team controls.
- Review the chosen change at the next retrospective.
Useful variations
Personal Start Stop Continue
Let each participant choose one personal working habit before selecting a team action.
Meeting reset
Focus every card on recurring meetings, attendance, preparation, and decisions.
Product delivery
Scope prompts to discovery, handoffs, quality checks, and release flow.
Before the retro
Recommended warm-up
This or That
Use a quick, low-pressure choice round before the retrospective begins.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Start Stop Continue retrospective?
It is a three-column retrospective that asks which practices the team should begin, remove, and preserve in the next iteration.
What are good Start Stop Continue examples?
Good cards describe controllable behavior, such as starting early risk reviews, stopping mid-sprint scope changes, or continuing small pull requests.
How many actions should the team choose?
Choose one or two changes with clear owners. A long action list usually weakens follow-through.
How long does this retrospective take?
Allow 30–40 minutes for a team of three to twelve, including silent writing, voting, discussion, and action selection.
Related retrospective templates
Run this Start Stop Continue Retrospective
Open the ready-made columns, invite the team, collect observations, vote, and leave with an owned improvement.