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Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: d54dac9d36e1694a4f0b0cf277817000b1e7cb952f84d7637c96b8e0be9e8e86

# Hot Air Balloon Retrospective

Participants analyze past drivers and obstacles alongside future risks and opportunities using a hot air balloon visual. The group sorts observations into four quadrants, clusters themes, and commits to prioritized action items.

**Time:** 50 minutes. UWT suggested duration of 50 minutes allows sufficient discussion of prioritized actions and a tight closing debrief for groups up to 24.
**People:** 4 to 24. Individual silent reflection, four assigned quadrant pairs or small groups for sorting, followed by whole-group prioritization.

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Surface past accomplishments and blockers alongside future risks and opportunities to produce specific, assigned action items.
**Use it when:** Use at sprint reviews, project milestones, or quarterly boundaries when a team needs to examine past performance and prepare for upcoming conditions.
**Skip it when:** Skip during an ongoing incident response requiring rapid technical diagnosis, or when conducting a root cause post-mortem dedicated to a single failure.

## Materials and tools

- Whiteboard or wall chart prepared with four quadrant headings (Hot Air, Sandbags, Storm Clouds, Clear Skies) and a dedicated action-item section
- Sticky notes for participants (up to 4 notes per person)
- Additional distinct-color sticky notes and markers for cluster header labels
- Felt-tip markers (1 per participant)
- Voting dot stickers (3 dots per participant)
- Shared digital whiteboard template for remote or hybrid teams

## Before participants arrive

1. Draw four quadrants on the wall chart or whiteboard with a basic balloon outline, reserving space for an action-item tracker, or load the digital template.
2. Label the quadrants: Hot Air (what lifted us), Sandbags (what slowed us down), Storm Clouds (risks ahead), and Clear Skies (upcoming strengths and opportunities).
3. Distribute sticky notes and markers to all in-person seats; verify digital whiteboard edit access for all participants.

## Say this to open

Welcome. Today we will use the hot air balloon metaphor to reflect on where we have been and look ahead at what is coming. The hot air is what lifted us up, like automating our reporting. The sandbags are what dragged us down, like waiting two days for sign-offs. Looking forward, the storm clouds are the risks ahead, like an unclear project scope. Clear skies are the strengths and opportunities ahead, like having strong technical expertise on our bench. You will write silently first, with up to four notes total, then we will group themes and decide our next moves.

## How to run it

### 1. Explain quadrants and guidelines (5 minutes)

Read the opening script. Review the four quadrants and give one neutral example for each category. Instruct participants to write concisely, limiting their output to a maximum of four sticky notes total, with one idea per note.

### 2. Silent individual writing (8 minutes)

Participants write their notes in silence. As they finish, they place each note in the corresponding quadrant on the wall or digital board. In-person participants who prefer anonymity may drop their folded notes into a central tray for the facilitator to post.

### 3. Cluster into themes (12 minutes)

For groups of 4 to 7, work as one room. For groups of 8 to 24, form four quadrant teams. Distribute any remainder participants evenly between Sandbags and Storm Clouds first. Teams group related notes and write distinct-color header cards for each cluster. At minute 9, bring the full group back together. Have each team spend roughly 30 seconds reading only their cluster headers aloud to the room. Use the remaining time to ensure all headers are clearly displayed and readable before voting begins.

### 4. Prioritize with dot voting (5 minutes)

Distribute 3 voting dots to each participant (or enable 3 digital votes). Instruct participants to vote on the cluster headers or standalone notes that most urgently require team action in the next cycle. People may place multiple dots on a single item.

### 5. Agree on actions and debrief (20 minutes)

Select the top 2 or 3 voted headers. Spend 15 minutes asking: 'What specific action will address this theme?' Record each action on the board with one named owner and deadline. For the final 5 minutes, select one debrief question from the debrief list, announce it to the room, and invite 2 or 3 volunteers to answer.


## Debrief questions

- Which sandbag can we drop immediately with minimal team effort?
- What is one proactive move we can take this week to steer around our top storm cloud?
- How can we repeat the practices that gave us lift during the past cycle?

**Finished output:** A four-quadrant board of clustered themes and an agreed list of 2 to 3 documented action items with named owners and target completion dates.

## Remote

Set up a shared digital whiteboard with four labeled quadrants. Set sticky note cards to hidden or private mode during the silent writing phase. Run a 3-minute digital dot vote, then capture action items directly into a shared text document.

## Hybrid

All attendees log into the same shared digital whiteboard. In-person members use laptops or sit with a digital buddy. During clustering, each assigned quadrant team includes one remote and one in-person member if possible, conversing via a breakout audio channel or chat. If strict hybrid pairing is not practical due to roster numbers or audio constraints, form all-remote and all-in-person quadrant subteams while keeping all contributions on the single digital board. The facilitator spotlights clustered headers on the main screen rather than reading every individual card.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants can submit cards anonymously online via private mode, or in person by placing folded cards in a drop tray for facilitator posting.
- Participants may write on fewer than four quadrants or pass on contributing to certain categories without explanation.
- Speaking during plenary discussion is optional; participants may post written proposals directly under header cards.

## If the session gets stuck

**Participants write only about past problems and leave future quadrants blank.**

Pause at minute 5 of silent writing and say: 'Check your stack. Make sure you write at least one card for Storm Clouds or Clear Skies before posting.'

**Too many sticky notes are posted, making clustering unmanageable within the time limit.**

Enforce the strict limit of four cards per participant during the introduction. If a quadrant still has excess cards, instruct the sorting team to merge obvious duplicates first without reading them aloud.


## Terms used here

- Futurespective: A structured team reflection that evaluates past events and projects future risks or opportunities to set upcoming goals.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in materials published by agile tooling platforms including Parabol and EasyRetro (template credited by EasyRetro to user Dinesh).

Retained the four-part metaphor (Hot Air, Sandbags, Storm Clouds, Clear Skies) and the reflect-cluster-vote-discuss progression documented in Parabol and EasyRetro records. UWT adjusted the total duration to 50 minutes to allow adequate time for action-item formulation and debrief, added supply specifications for cluster headers and board action recording, and refined subgroup allocation rules.

[Parabol](https://www.parabol.co/templates/sprint-retrospectives/hot-air-balloon/)

[Parabol](https://www.parabol.co/templates/sprint-retrospectives/hot-air-balloon)

[EasyRetro](https://easyretro.io/templates/hot-air-ballon-retrospective)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/hot-air-balloon-retrospective/