Research-backed guide to effective retrospectives.

Project Managers, You're Doing Retros Wrong

Retrospectives are meant to be the heart of Agile reflection. In reality, though, they often feel like a formality. A few sticky notes, a predictable silence, and a rush to finish before the next call. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone — the cost of ineffective retrospectives is higher than most teams realize.

Alexey Polonsky, Scrum Master at LeverX, knows the feeling well.

"Too many retrospectives start in silence," he said during his recent exclusive masterclass for LeverX employees. "People are still mentally in code, in Jira tickets, or in their last meeting. You need to help them switch gears. That's what [retrospective] warm-ups are for."

And no, Alexey doesn't mean trust falls or team karaoke. He means quick, thoughtful ways to bring people into the room, both mentally and emotionally, so that the conversation feels human, honest, and helpful.

Why Retros Miss the Mark

In our own teams at LeverX, we've run our fair share of retrospectives. We've tried the classic formats: “Start, Stop, Continue," "4Ls," and "Glad, Sad, Mad."

They work to a point. But when the team is tired or distracted, even the best structure can fall flat. Polonsky puts it plainly: "Time spent on warm-ups is time well spent. It pays off in better focus, stronger team bonds, and more honest conversations."

When your team is deeply focused on technical work, their brains are wired for problem-solving, not reflection. Asking someone to immediately switch from debugging code to discussing team dynamics is like asking a sprinter to suddenly start doing yoga. The mental muscles are completely different.

Warming up before a retrospective meeting doesn't mean adding more to your agenda. It means being more intentional about how you begin a retro.

What a Warm-Up Actually Does

Let's say your retro starts at 3 p.m. Half the team just came out of a sprint demo. Another is fighting a production bug. Someone else had back-to-back meetings since morning.

If you launch right into "What went well?" you'll likely get blank stares or autopilot answers. A good warm-up gives everyone a mental reset.

A few years back, Google did a massive study of team effectiveness. They found that the number one factor in high-performing teams wasn't technical skills or experience — it was psychological safety. Simply put, people perform better when they feel safe to speak up, make mistakes, and be themselves.

But here's the thing: psychological safety doesn't just happen. It needs to be actively created, especially when people are switching from individual work to team reflection.

A warm-up doesn't need to be long or fancy. It just needs to:

• Help people shift focus from task to team,
• Signal that this is a different kind of meeting,
• Invite small, personal engagement before deeper discussion,
• Create an environment where everyone feels safe to contribute.

What We've Tried (and Loved) at LeverX

Polonsky shared some of his go-to warm-ups during the session, and we've tried many of them in our own teams. Each one works for specific psychological reasons.

"Who would I be if not a developer?"

This one never fails to surprise. Suddenly, your backend engineer is sharing that she almost became a children's book illustrator. These small moments of personality change the whole tone.

Why it works: When people share something personal but non-threatening, they become more than just their job title. This makes it easier to give and receive feedback because you're talking to a whole person, not just "the person who wrote that buggy code."

"What fruit are you today?"

It sounds silly, but it works. "I feel like a lemon. A bit sour after that sprint review." Laughter. Empathy. Honest emotion in under 30 seconds.

Why it works: Metaphors help people express complex emotions they might struggle to put into words directly. It's easier to say "I'm a wilted lettuce" than "I'm exhausted and demoralized."

"My first mobile phone"

This gets people nostalgic and talking. We've seen it unlock long-forgotten stories, and more importantly, get everyone talking early.

Why it works: Nostalgia triggers positive emotions and creates shared experiences. When people remember their first Nokia brick phone, they're connecting over shared generational experiences, building rapport.

Bonus prompts

• Where would you like to travel? Gets people thinking about hopes and dreams.
• What's your nickname? Reveals personality and family connections.
• What's your favorite day of the week? Uncovers personal rhythms and preferences.

You can do these verbally or drop answers in the chat. Miro, MURAL, and EasyRetro make it easy to run them online.

These warm-ups build psychological safety and invite participation from quieter voices. And they show that everyone's presence, not just their tasks, matters.

The Real Cost of Skipping Warm-Ups

We've seen the difference firsthand at LeverX. Without a warm-up, retros feel colder. People stay guarded. Feedback is vague or sugar-coated. Action items feel more like a checklist than a commitment.

"A stale retro is a dead retro," Polonsky said. "Creativity isn't optional; it's how you stay relevant."

It's easy to think that we don't have time. But the truth is, you don't have time not to make your retros work. A five-minute warm-up can transform a 60-minute meeting from wasteful to transformative.

Improve Your Retros Beyond Warm-Ups

Warm-ups are just the beginning. Polonsky also recommends regular check-ins that help gauge how safe people feel to speak honestly.

Safety Check

The Safety Check is quick: ask everyone to rate how safe they feel to speak honestly (1 to 5). Use emojis in chat or voting dots on a board. If scores are low, pause and talk about it. Don't ignore it.

This technique comes from something we've learned: teams need to explicitly check how safe people feel to speak honestly. If people don't feel safe, they won't share the real problems — they'll give you the sanitized version.

Squad Health Check

The Squad Health Check (borrowed from Spotify's engineering culture) helps you see beyond just the last sprint. You rate aspects like "delivery speed," "learning," and "fun" with green/yellow/red cards. It gives you a bird's-eye view of how the team feels overall.

Often, teams focus so much on what went wrong in the last sprint that they miss bigger patterns. Are people learning and growing? Are they having fun? These factors predict long-term performance better than sprint velocity.

Warm-Ups Before Advanced Techniques

Polonsky warns: "These only work if your team feels safe. Warm-ups help create that foundation."

Reinforce Safety With Just Two Rules

Some of the simplest ideas are the most effective. Every retro, Polonsky opens with two rules:

• Las Vegas Rule: What's said in the retro stays in the retro.
• Camera or Story: If you don't want to turn the camera on, share something instead, like how your day's going.

These rituals work because they establish clear expectations about how the team will interact. We've seen that teams with clear "unwritten agreements" about behavior have higher trust, better conflict resolution, and more innovation.

In our hybrid teams, we've found that these small rituals make a big difference. They slow things down, set a respectful tone, and remind everyone that this space is for us.

Why Virtual Teams Need Extra Care

Working with remote teams has taught us that everything that works in person needs to be amplified online. In our experience with remote retrospectives at LeverX, we've learned that:

• Warm-ups take longer virtually. The lack of physical presence means you need to work harder to create a connection. What takes 3 minutes in person might take 5 minutes online.
• Breakout rooms are essential. Large group discussions often leave quieter team members silent. Small groups of 3-4 people create safety for everyone to speak.
• Visual elements matter. Shared screens, virtual backgrounds, and collaborative tools help create shared experiences when you can't be in the same room.
• Asynchronous preparation helps. Giving people time to think before the meeting improves the quality of contributions. Consider sending the retro questions a day early.

When It's Time to Mix Things Up

If your retros are starting to feel stale, it might be time for a format shake-up. The human brain naturally becomes less responsive to repeated experiences. This is why the same warm-up stops working after a while.

Try these approaches that teams at LeverX have loved:

• Themed retros. A retro themed as a space mission ("What asteroids did we hit this sprint?") or road trip ("What roadblocks slowed us down?")
• Object metaphors. Using physical or virtual objects to describe the sprint ("I was like a traffic cone — people kept going around me")
• User perspective. A retro from the perspective of your product's user ("If our users could talk to us, what would they say about this sprint?")

We recently ran one where everyone used a weather forecast to describe the sprint: "Stormy but with some sun at the end." It was fun, insightful, and way more memorable than another round of "what went well."

The key is variety with purpose. When implementing a new retro format, always remember your focus: the psychological safety and meaningful reflection.

Why This Works

You might wonder, does all this light-heartedness lead to real results? In our experience: yes. 

We've found that teams using warm-ups consistently:

• Speak more freely, even about difficult topics. When people feel connected as humans, they're more willing to address uncomfortable truths.
• Get to root causes faster. When people feel safe, they stop dancing around the real issues.
• Are more likely to follow through on action items. Social connection increases commitment to the team.

Studies show that positive emotions broaden thinking, increase creativity, and improve team cohesion. In practical terms, this means better problem-solving and more innovative solutions.

And the best part is that people start looking forward to retros. They don't just show up; they engage.

Implementation Guide for Scrum Masters

For Project Managers and Scrum Masters ready to implement these practices, here's a phased approach.

Week 1-2

• Begin with 5-minute warm-ups using basic questions like "What fruit are you today?"
• Establish the Las Vegas Rule
• Track participation: who's talking and who isn't

Week 3-4

• Add safety check-ins using 1-5 scale ratings
• If scores are low, spend time discussing what would make people feel safer
• Introduce Squad Health Check for broader team health visibility

Week 5-8

• Try themed retrospectives
• Use breakout rooms for larger teams
• Add asynchronous preparation elements

Week 9+

• Regularly rotate warm-up formats
• Measure key metrics: participation, follow-through, satisfaction
• Adjust techniques based on team feedback

Metrics to Measure Success

To ensure your enhanced retrospectives are delivering value, track these simple metrics.

Engagement

• What percentage of team members actively contribute? Goal: 80%+
• How evenly is conversation distributed? Goal: No one person dominating
• How many action items get completed? Goal: Increase every sprint

Quality

• How quickly do you identify root causes vs. surface symptoms?
• Are people sharing diverse perspectives or echoing the same points?
• Is feedback getting more specific and actionable over time?

Satisfaction

• Simple post-retro survey: "Rate this retro 1-5"
• Ask: "Do you feel safe to speak honestly in our retros?"
• Track: "Are you optimistic about our next sprint?"

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Based on our experience at LeverX, here are the most common mistakes teams make when implementing these practices:

• Making warm-ups too long. Keep them under 10 minutes. People get antsy if they drag on.
• Using the same warm-up repeatedly. Rotate every 2-3 retros to prevent habituation.
• Forcing participation. If someone doesn't want to share, respect that. The goal is safety, not compliance.
• Ignoring safety check results. If people rate psychological safety low, address it immediately. Don't just note it and move on.
• Focusing on positive emotions only. It's okay for people to express frustration or disappointment. The goal is authentic connection, not forced positivity.

Takeaways

As we’ve learnt in this article, teams that invest in psychological safety and proper meeting preparation outperform those that don't. The effects compound over time, creating a cycle of trust, engagement, and continuous improvement.

Five minutes of intentional warm-up time can bring you more engaged teams, better problem-solving, stronger relationships, and ultimately, better software and happier customers. In an industry where technical skills are increasingly common (and being replaced with AI as we speak), the teams that master the human elements of collaboration will have the lasting advantage.

So before you ask, "What could we improve?" try asking, "What kind of fruit are you today?" Let the team land and show up as humans first.

Remember that retros exist not just to optimize work but to build trust. And trust always starts with a connection.