# Hear the Music Retrospective Participants sort recent work experiences into three vinyl-record themed columns: successes, blockers, and new ideas. The group votes on key issues and assigns concrete actions for the next cycle. **Time:** 45 minutes. Source specifies a 45-minute duration; phase timings are established by UWT. **People:** 4 to 24. Solo writing, silent individual voting, and whole-room prioritized discussion ## Choose this exercise **Purpose:** Collect retrospective observations across three themed categories, prioritize items through silent voting, and commit to assigned action steps. **Use it when:** Use at the end of a sprint or work cycle when a team needs to celebrate wins, address recurring friction, and plan adjustments. **Skip it when:** Skip during an urgent technical incident post-mortem that requires a root-cause timeline rather than a broad team review. ## Materials and tools - Sticky notes (three distinct colors recommended) - Fine-tip markers (one per participant) - Dot stickers for voting (3 per participant) or digital voting tokens - Whiteboard or wall space divided into three columns - Digital timer - Central microphone (for hybrid) - Co-facilitator (optional, for hybrid) ## Before participants arrive 1. Draw three large columns on a wall or digital board labeled: 'Toe Tapping... Sounds Great!', 'Record is Scratched!', and 'Recording a new song!'. 2. Distribute sticky notes and markers to every seat, or verify link access to the digital board. ## Say this to open Welcome to our retrospective. Today we are using a vinyl record theme to review our recent sprint. We have three columns: 'Toe Tapping' for things that went well, 'Record is Scratched' for things that hit friction, and 'Recording a new song' for concrete experiments to try next. Let us start with individual silent writing. ## How to run it ### 1. Introduce prompts (3 minutes) Explain the music theme and review the three board columns: 'Toe Tapping' (working well), 'Record is Scratched' (blockers and friction), and 'Recording a new song' (actionable ideas and experiments). Remind participants that notes may remain anonymous. ### 2. Silent generation (7 minutes) Set the timer for 7 minutes. Participants write observations independently on sticky notes, one thought per note, and place them into the corresponding columns. Maintain silence without group debate. ### 3. Silent read and vote (8 minutes) Give each participant 3 dot stickers or 3 digital votes. Participants silently review the posted notes and cast their votes on the items in 'Record is Scratched' and 'Recording a new song' that are most important to address. No whole-room reading aloud occurs during this step, ensuring equal time regardless of card count. ### 4. Cluster and sort (5 minutes) The facilitator identifies the top-voted cards, groups immediate duplicates together with group consent, and selects the top 2 or 3 priority topics for discussion. ### 5. Discuss priorities (15 minutes) Focus on the top 2 or 3 selected topics in order of votes. Spend up to 5 minutes per topic discussing root friction and capturing a draft solution. Explicitly ask: 'What concrete experiment addresses this?' Capture emerging ideas directly onto the board. ### 6. Confirm action items (7 minutes) Review the proposed solutions generated during discussion or drawn from 'Recording a new song'. Confirm a named owner and an explicit deadline for 1 to 3 concrete commitments before closing. ## Debrief questions - Which common pattern across our cards surprised the group most? - What is one concrete change from 'Recording a new song' that we will start immediately? - Who is the point person for each agreed action item? **Finished output:** A sorted board of sprint reflections and 1 to 3 assigned action items with named owners and deadlines. ## Remote Set up a shared digital whiteboard with three columns: 'Toe Tapping... Sounds Great!', 'Record is Scratched!', and 'Recording a new song!'. Run silent drafting on a 7-minute timer. Use the platform's voting tool to give each person 3 votes for 8 minutes while reading. Sort by vote count and discuss top items sequentially on video chat. ## Hybrid Use a single shared digital board for both remote and in-room participants. In-room members type notes directly or write on paper that a designated co-facilitator posts to the board. In-room speech goes through a central microphone so remote contributors join discussions equally. ## Access and participation choices - Notes can be submitted anonymously and without speaking aloud. - Participants may choose to observe the discussion phase silently and contribute purely through written sticky notes or voting. ## If the session gets stuck **Participants write broad complaints like 'poor communication' in 'Record is Scratched'.** Prompt for a neutral, concrete instance: 'In which handover did details get missed, and what format would fix that next time?' **Discussion stalls on rehashing past frustration rather than solutions.** Interrupt gently and prompt: 'What small change in our next sprint would reduce this friction?' Direct attention immediately to 'Recording a new song'. ## Terms used here - Retrospective: A structured team review meeting held at the end of a sprint or work cycle to assess performance and decide improvements. - Dot-voting: A prioritization method where participants allocate a set number of sticker dots or digital marks to indicate their top choices. ## Sources and adaptation Observed in EasyRetro community templates, attributed to creator Corinne. Retained the three core record-themed columns (Toe Tapping, Record is Scratched, Recording a new song) and the 45-minute sprint retrospective structure from the EasyRetro community template by Corinne. To support groups up to 24 without bottlenecking on verbal card reading, UWT combined silent review with dot-voting prior to whole-room discussion, and added explicit timings, neutral examples, and hybrid delivery procedures. [EasyRetro](https://easyretro.io/templates/hear-the-music/) Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/hear-the-music/