What is the Hero’s Journey Retrospective?
The Hero’s Journey Retrospective asks a team to imagine their last iteration as an epic fantasy tale, telling a story of how they went through a transformative journey.
Each person in the team will write a background for their hero and their call to action, who they were supported by, what obstacles they overcame on their journey, if they achieved their goal, and how they levelled up or what lessons were learned.
How to run the Hero’s Journey Retrospective
- Introduce the activity and the purpose. Give an example to inspire the team.
- Encourage each team member to reflect and think of themselves as the hero of their own sprint story.
- Each person writes their stickies for each section, using private writing to conceal their stickies until ready.
- Once all sections are complete, in turn each person tells their sprint story to the group, revealing their stickies as they go.
- Once all stories have been told, the group reflects on what went well, what went badly, and areas for improvement.
- Write any actions that have come out of the session.
Bonus – at the end of the session, ask the team to vote for the “bravest hero” and the “funniest story”, or come up with your own awards.
