The Rose, Bud, Thorn retrospective
Roses for highlights, buds for ideas with potential, thorns for pain points. A short, friendly retro format, and how to run it well.
Rose, Bud, Thorn sorts what people noticed into highlights, ideas with potential, and pain points. The LUMA Institute, which teaches human-centered design, uses it as a design method and traces it to the Boy Scouts of America, where scouts are encouraged to name a rose, a thorn and a bud: a positive experience, a negative one, and a new goal or insight.
The bud is what makes it more than a plus-and-minus list. A bud isn't working yet but could: an early idea, a small win that might grow. Giving potential its own column turns the retro toward what's next.
The three columns
- Rose: A highlight or success. Be specific: "The customer call where we saw them use the new search." A rose you can point to is easier to repeat.
- Bud: An idea with potential. Promising but not there yet: "The shared on-call notes are helping. With a template, they could replace the handover call."
- Thorn: A pain point or challenge. Describe the problem and its cost, not who caused it: "Flaky tests failed the build four times this week."
When to use it
It's light and friendly, which suits mixed groups, people new to retros, and reviews with stakeholders from outside the team. It also works after events, workshops and demos, or as a quick check-in at the end of a longer meeting.
If the team needs decisions about its habits, Start · Stop · Continue turns every card into an action. If you're working toward a clear goal and want to talk about risks, try the Sailboat. If the real issue is how people feel, Mad · Sad · Glad is more direct.
How to run it
- Set the stage (5 minutes). Explain the three kinds of card, especially the bud. Review last retro's actions: did any of last time's buds grow?
- Write alone (7 minutes). Everyone writes roses, buds and thorns, with at least one bud each.
- Group (5 to 10 minutes). Merge duplicates, and put buds next to the thorns they answer: a pain point with a promising idea beside it is a ready-made discussion.
- Vote (3 minutes). Spend votes on the buds and thorns that matter most. Hidden tallies keep the result honest.
- Discuss (20 minutes). For a thorn, ask what it costs and whether any bud addresses it. For a bud, ask what it would take to grow it.
- Agree actions (5 to 10 minutes). The best actions often come from buds: small steps to help a promising idea along. Give each an owner and a due date.
- Close (3 minutes). Read back the actions and a few roses.
Tips
- Explain the bud. Without a word of explanation, people treat it as a second rose or a softer thorn. It's neither: it's potential.
- Keep it quick when you need to. For a check-in at the end of a workshop, one card per column per person is enough.
- Follow your buds. At the next retro, check which buds grew. Some may be this time's roses.
Run it in Scrums
Choose New session → Retrospective on your team's page and pick Rose · Bud · Thorn from the formats. Everyone writes privately, and other people's cards stay face-down until the facilitator reveals them, so nobody's first card sets the tone. Then group similar cards (or let Auto-group cluster them), vote with hidden tallies, and discuss the topics in order, adding action items with an owner and a due date. Open action items come back in the next retro's Review step. Retros are anonymous by default, and Scrums is free.
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Questions
What does rose, bud, thorn mean?
A rose is a highlight or success, a bud is an idea or early sign with potential, and a thorn is a pain point or challenge.
What's the difference between Rose Bud Thorn and Went Well, To Improve, Ideas?
They have a similar shape. The difference is the third column: Ideas asks for suggestions to try, while a bud can also be something already happening that shows promise.
Can you use Rose Bud Thorn outside software teams?
Yes. It works for any group looking back on shared work, such as a design review, an event or a workshop, and its three categories need almost no explanation.