The sailboat retrospective
Wind, anchors, rocks and an island. A retro about what moves your team toward its goal, what holds it back, and the risks ahead.
The sailboat retrospective pictures the team as a boat. The wind pushes it forward, anchors hold it back, rocks lie ahead, and the island is where it's going. It grew out of Speed Boat, one of the games in Luke Hohmann's 2006 book Innovation Games, in which customers mark the features that slow a product down as anchors on a drawing of a boat. Teams adapted it into a retrospective, and the sailboat version adds the wind, the rocks and the island.
Unlike most formats, it looks both ways: wind and anchors are about what happened, rocks and the island about what's coming.
The four areas
- Wind: What pushed us forward? What actually helped: "Having the designer in our standups meant fewer surprises in review."
- Anchors: What held us back? A drag that's slowing you now: "Every release still needs a manual sign-off from another team."
- Rocks: What risks lie ahead? A risk you can see coming: "Two of us are on leave during the migration." If it's already hurting, it's an anchor.
- Island: Where are we trying to go? The goal, specific enough to steer by: "Self-serve onboarding live for all new customers by March."
When to use it
It works best when the team shares a goal: a release, a launch, a quarter. That makes it a natural fit for the start or end of a quarter, or midway through a long project.
Without a shared goal, the island turns into a debate, and Start · Stop · Continue is a better choice. To compare a written plan with what happened, use Plan vs. Actual. For a lighter look at highlights and pain points, try Rose · Bud · Thorn.
How to run it
- Set the stage (5 to 8 minutes). Explain the picture, then agree on the island first and write it where everyone can see it.
- Write alone (10 minutes). Everyone writes wind, anchors and rocks. Remind people: anchors are now, rocks are later.
- Group (5 to 10 minutes). Merge duplicates, and move cards that landed in the wrong place: a "risk" that's already hurting is an anchor.
- Vote (3 minutes). Spend votes on the anchors and rocks that matter most.
- Discuss (20 minutes). For the top anchor, ask what it would take to lift it. For the top rock, ask how to steer around it. Spend a minute on the wind, so the team knows what to protect.
- Agree actions (5 to 10 minutes). Aim for one action that lifts an anchor and one that steers around a rock, each with an owner and a due date.
- Close (2 minutes). Read back the island and the actions, so everyone leaves with the same heading.
Tips
- Agree the island first. It's an easy step to skip, and without it the board has nothing to point at.
- Don't skip the wind. It tells you what not to break while you fix the rest.
- Use the picture lightly. It helps people think, and it doesn't need to be taken literally.
Run it in Scrums
Choose New session → Retrospective on your team's page and pick Sailboat 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.
Try a retro in your browser, or sign up free.
Questions
What's the difference between the sailboat and speedboat retrospectives?
The speedboat has a boat and anchors: what's slowing you down. The sailboat adds wind for what helps, rocks for risks ahead, and an island for the goal. The two names are often used for the same thing.
How long does a sailboat retrospective take?
Plan for 45 to 60 minutes, and allow extra the first time if the team hasn't discussed its goal recently.
What if the team disagrees about the island?
That's worth finding out. If people are sailing toward different islands, lifting anchors won't help. Spend the discussion agreeing the goal, or take it to whoever sets the team's priorities, and run the full sailboat once it's clear.