Retro Darts

Retro Darts is a quick way to determine how your team feel on important issues. You will present the team with a number of ‘targets’ to gain insight on topics, challenges, or issues of your choice.

Tools Required

• 5-10 minutes depending on team size
• Whiteboard or flip chart
• Whiteboard pens or markers
• Magnetic counters or stickers

​​​​​Method

1. On your whiteboard or flip chart, draw a series of dartboard targets (three works best for this exercise). Each target should comprise of three circles.Write ‘100%’ in the bullseye, ‘50%’ in the next circle, and ‘0%’ on the outer ring.Next to each target, write a statement you wish to gain insight on from your participants. Example statements can include ‘I spoke openly’, ‘I spoke about what matters’ or ‘we will improve next sprint’.

2. ---

   Explain to participants that they are to place a sticker (or magnetic counter) on the target based on their agreement with the statement. A sticker in the bullseye represents 100% agreement, in the next circle is 50% agreement and the outer circle is 0% agreement.

3. ---

   From this, you can draw conclusions or ask further questions to delve a little deeper into the responses.

Challenging Questions

Asking questions at the end of the retrospective may be helpful for you as the Scrum Master to gain insight for improvements to your next retrospective. In addition, participants have a final chance to speak.

Here are a few examples:

“Is there anything else here that we have missed?”
Helps make sure everyone has contributed and gives a chance to call out final thoughts.

“What could we do differently next time?”
Gives an opportunity to gain insight, explore ideas for improvements in the future, and gain a sense of what participants would want from a future retrospective.

Takeaways

For the Scrum Mater, the Retro Dart is an exercise that helps you gauge the mood of your team. From this, you will have insights on what worked well (and what did not) and have information that may help shape conversations you have with team members during their next sprint.

In addition, if used across several sprints, you will have information that will help to demonstrate the maturity of the team, explore progress, or highlight anomalies.

Give it a go and let us know how it worked for you and your team.

Acknowledgements

• https://retromat.org/en/?id=83