--- title: "Yam It, Jam It, Damn It" description: "Participants write retrospective notes under three lighthearted categories to review what succeeded, what needs a rework, and what caused frustration. The group clusters themes and selects practical changes." last_updated: "2026-09-07" canonical: "https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/yam-it-jam-it-damn-it/" --- # Yam It, Jam It, Damn It Participants write retrospective notes under three lighthearted categories to review what succeeded, what needs a rework, and what caused frustration. The group clusters themes and selects practical changes. **Time:** 30 minutes. Total duration matches the 30-minute source record. Step breakdowns are a UWT facilitation plan designed to keep clustering and action planning viable for larger groups. **People:** 4 to 24. Individual silent writing, paired posting, and whole-room voting on prioritized items. ## Choose this exercise **Purpose:** Sort team experiences into successes, items needing revision, and acute frustrations to identify concrete process improvements. **Use it when:** Use at the close of an iteration, milestone, or seasonal project when a playful prompt helps surface both wins and pain points. **Skip it when:** Skip during high-conflict disciplinary reviews or post-incident investigations where informal wordplay feels dismissive of serious harm. ## Materials and tools - Three wall posters or whiteboard columns labeled: Yam It, Jam It, and Damn It - One pad of 3x3 inch sticky notes per participant - One felt-tip marker per participant - Sheet of dot stickers (at least 3 stickers per participant) or felt-tip markers for drawing tallies - One digital countdown timer ## Before participants arrive 1. Draw three vertical columns on a whiteboard or wall titled: 'Yam It (Worked well)', 'Jam It (Needs a remix or reboot)', and 'Damn It (Pain point to fix)'. 2. Place sticky notes, markers, and dot stickers at every seat. ## Say this to open Welcome. We are using three prompts today to review our recent work. 'Yam It' is for what worked well. 'Jam It' is for anything that exists but needs a remix or reboot. 'Damn It' is for an outright pain point that caused trouble. Please write one clear observation per sticky note. ## How to run it ### 1. Introduce prompts and write silently (6 minutes) Read the column definitions aloud. Give an explicit example: 'Yam It: Daily standups ended on time. Jam It: Our handoff checklist is outdated. Damn It: The staging server failed three times during release.' Ask participants to write silently, putting one thought per note. Aim for at least one note in any category of their choice. Silence ensures everyone can write without interruption. ### 2. Post and merge duplicates (8 minutes) Have participants post their notes under the three columns. For groups up to 8, individuals read their notes as they post. For groups over 8, people post simultaneously; partners or table pairs take two minutes to read each other's notes and merge obvious duplicates before posting them to the main board. ### 3. Cluster and vote (8 minutes) The facilitator invites 2 volunteers to group remaining obvious duplicates under each heading. Give each participant three dot stickers, or instruct them to draw up to three tally marks with their marker across any notes. Everyone votes simultaneously within 2 minutes. ### 4. Agree on one action and debrief (8 minutes) Identify the single highest-voted Damn It or Jam It item. Ask the group for one concrete remedy, an assigned owner, and a target date. Use the remaining minutes to ask one or two debrief questions, taking up to three quick volunteer responses. ## Debrief questions - Which Jam It item has the simplest path to a working remix? - What condition allowed our Yam It successes to happen, and how do we protect it? - What immediate safeguard will prevent our top-voted Damn It from recurring? **Finished output:** A sorted board of team feedback and at least one assigned action item with an owner and target completion date. ## Remote Use an online whiteboard with three columns titled Yam It, Jam It, and Damn It. Set a 5-minute timer for silent typing on digital notes. Invite participants to use built-in voting tools for three votes each, or add three emoji reactions if built-in voting is unavailable. Consolidate actions in a shared document visible on screen. ## Hybrid In-person attendees use sticky notes on a physical board while a designated board scribe mirrors them into a shared digital whiteboard. Remote participants add sticky notes directly to the digital board. Screen-share the digital board in the room so all participants see the unified set during voting and debrief. ## Access and participation choices - Participants may submit notes anonymously via a drop box or private chat message to the facilitator. - Any participant may choose to observe silently or write without posting to the public board. ## If the session gets stuck **Participants place almost all notes in 'Damn It', creating defensive reactions.** Remind the room to focus on processes and tool configurations rather than individuals. Re-read the 'Yam It' column to anchor the discussion in practices that are working. **Suggestions under 'Jam It' are vague, like 'improve communication'.** Ask the author or group: 'What specific artifact, meeting, or message cadence needs to change to make that remix real?' ## Terms used here - Remix / Reboot: An existing process, tool, or routine that should not be discarded entirely, but needs substantial adjustment to work properly. ## Sources and adaptation Observed on EasyRetro, where it is attributed to user Patrick as a Thanksgiving-themed retrospective template. Retained the three column prompts ('Yam It: what worked well', 'Jam It: what needs a remix/reboot', 'Damn It: what's a pain that needs improvement') and the 30-minute running time from the EasyRetro template. UWT structured the sequence into timed silent generation, posting, clustering, dot voting, and action planning, adjusting subgroup sharing and focus counts so the 30-minute container remains feasible up to group_max. [EasyRetro](https://easyretro.io/templates/yam-it-jam-it-damn-it/) Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/yam-it-jam-it-damn-it/