I tend to love a “quick feedback”. Usually, this applies to software development: Unit tests should execute fast, CI/CD should fail fast, and minimum bureaucracy between coding and deploying, quick deployments, automated alerts when something fails, etc.
Usually what many people think about when talking about “quick feedback” are the above engineering practices. But the softer side of being an engineer also benefits from quick feedback. That’s why I would like to talk about microretros today.
Most of us have heard about retrospectives (short: retro). It’s a meeting where you look (“spective”) back (“retro”) and reflect on what has happened, and come up with actionable tasks to
- continue doing things that are working well.
- improve on things that are not going so well.
Retrospectives usually happen with a regular cadence. For example, at the end of a sprint, or every 2nd/3rd/4th week.
I love retrospectives. In fact, for years I have been telling people that if there is one process they should have in place, it is regular retrospectives. Why? Because retrospectives make your organization, or team, self-correct based on what goes well and what doesn’t. It’s a way for everyone to learn.
Can we do better? Can we as an organization or team learn from our mistakes faster and make smaller course corrections more often? I believe yes, and one tool for that is Microretros.
A Microretro is where you ask a few participants at the end of an interaction with others about What they think about this session. A working session could be everything from a meeting, a workshop, a mob/pair programming session, or a tough conversation. It is a small practice where you actively gather feedback to learn and course correct, but at a microscale.
Literally spending 1-2 minutes during or after an interaction doing this can have an immense impact over time. If you were facilitating the meeting it can also be a great source of improvement as a facilitator over time!
If the participants are many, or time is very limited, you can ask for “a fist of five”. At the count of three, all participants held up 0-5 using their fingers to show how valuable the session was. Then ask the people giving the lowest score to name one thing that would have given a higher score.
Lastly, a Microretros is a small useful tool for learning & course correction, as well as it can be a great way to start building a healthy feedback culture within a team.