The Halloweenspective

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Gather sprint reflections across blockers, disappointments, successes, and future risks to produce concrete action items.

Use it when: Sprint end or project milestone around Halloween when the team wants a seasonal framing for review.

Skip it when: Teams where horror themes, holiday observances, or costume elements create cultural friction or discomfort.

Group arrangement: Individual reflection, optional pairs for clustering, and whole-room discussion.

Timing: UWT suggested standard sprint retrospective duration (45 minutes) for a 6-part retro board.

Materials and tools

• Sticky notes (at least 2 pads of 3x3 inch notes)
• Dark fine-tip markers (one per person)
• Whiteboard or wall space with 6 pre-labeled column headers
• Digital whiteboard board (for remote or hybrid delivery)

Before participants arrive

1. Label six board sections: 1. The Mad (Drives you crazy / Stops best work), 2. A Quiet Place (Disappointments / Needs improvement), 3. Happy Death Day (What makes you happy / Elements enjoyed), 4. Scary Movie (Fears about upcoming sprints), 5. Halloween (New improvement ideas / Fixes), 6. Choose Your Movie (Horror movie title or image indicating mood).
2. Optionally encourage participants to wear simple seasonal props or bring treats, keeping participation fully optional.

Say this to open

Welcome to our Halloweenspective. We have six horror-themed categories on the board. You will have eight minutes of quiet writing to add notes to any category where you have observations, plus one movie title or mood image in the last column. Costumes, props, and personal movie choices are completely optional. Let us start with silent writing.

How to run it

1. Introduce prompts and silent writing 10 minutes

   Explain the six columns using the opening script. Direct participants to write silently on sticky notes (one idea per note) and post them to the respective columns. Neutral example: In 'The Mad', someone might post 'Flaky CI test builds delay deploys'; in 'Halloween', someone might post 'Add automated retry to test runner'.

2. Review and group notes 12 minutes

   Read through posted notes column by column. Invite authors to clarify briefly if needed. Group identical or related issues into common clusters.

3. Prioritize and select action items 15 minutes

   Focus discussion on columns 4 (Scary Movie) and 5 (Halloween). Give each person 3 dot votes or checkmarks to prioritize the ideas. Select the top one or two actionable proposals and assign a clear owner and completion criterion for each.

4. Debrief and mood checkout 8 minutes

   Review the final mood selections in column 6. Ask two debrief questions to the room, hearing brief remarks from volunteers before closing.

Debrief questions

• Which fear listed under Scary Movie can we address immediately in our sprint planning?
• What bright spot from Happy Death Day should we make sure to repeat next sprint?

Finished output: A documented retrospective board with prioritized insights and 1 to 2 owned action items for the upcoming sprint.

Remote

Set up a digital board with the six named columns and image upload capabilities. Run silent writing with cameras optional. Review clusters via screen share, using digital voting icons for prioritization.

Hybrid

Maintain the primary board on a shared digital workspace. In-person participants type on their own laptops or a designated scribe inputs physical sticky notes directly onto the digital canvas before clustering.

Access and participation choices

• Dressing up, sharing candy, or decorating camera backgrounds is completely voluntary.
• Participants may post notes anonymously or pass on any specific movie column without explanation.

If the session gets stuck

Participants focus only on funny movie titles and ignore substantive project issues.

Acknowledge the humor, then redirect attention explicitly to the 'Halloween' ideas and 'The Mad' blockers.

Someone is unfamiliar with or dislikes horror movies.

Clarify that the titles are just labels; participants only need to answer the plain English questions under each heading.

Terms used here

• Sprint: A fixed working cycle (commonly 1 to 4 weeks) during which a team completes a set amount of work.