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SMART Goal Template

What are SMART Goals?

SMART goals are:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound

Goal setting is well known to help teams deliver value. Goals help to equitably allocate tasks, track progress, manage time and focus effort. Defining meaningful goals, however, can sometimes be tricky.

Enter George Doran, the person credited with developing the SMART approach to goal setting. In his paper, “There’s a SMART Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives”, Doran presented an approach to help demystify the goal setting process and “write meaningful objectives”, and with it, SMART goals were born! SMART goals are a justifiably popular mechanism. They are an exceptional tool to help your team capture and articulate their vision and agree to the measurements of success.

Your team can use a SMART framework anytime you want to set, review or refine your goals. And if you’re looking for a way to foster a sense of collaboration and empower your team with a shared purpose, defining SMART goals is a great way to do it.

Related Templates

Simple Brainstorm
The Improvement Canvas
SWOT Analysis

Meeting Tips for Effective SMART Goals

Bigger goals can be divided into smaller steps to ensure they remain realistic
Goals should complement your company’s goals, mission, and vision.
Consider how day-to-day tasks will be delivered in parallel with the goal.
To get the most out of the SMART Goals template, first utilise a simple brainstorm to capture all the goals your team may wish to deliver, then review it to identify the goal you wish to expand into a SMART Goal.

References

SMART way to write Management Goals

Check out TeamRetro, our solution for distributed agile retrospectives

Why Use SMART Goals?

When it comes to goal setting, a SMART framework will help your team cut to the chase! It will support and focus your team as they shape clear goals that are realistic, actionable and effective. Not only will a SMART framework help your team define their goals efficiently, it will capture those goals so they can be clearly, concisely, and easily shared with new team members and other stakeholders.

A SMART framework helps to confirm your goals – are worth delivering, can be tracked to demonstrate change, are correctly resourced, and are appropriately aligned.

A goal like Improving fitness is too general. A SMART goal would be to be able to run 10KMs in under an hour by July is far more meaningful and focussed.

When Should I Shape a SMART Goal?

All common types of goals can be improved when viewed through a SMART lens. Examples of common goals include:

Increasing or reducing something – Reduce the error rates of a production of product X by the next financial year by 5%.

Making or creating something – Introduce 3 working prototype variations by the next quarter for an innovative approach to wear and tear detection.

Refining, improving or developing something – Improve the yield rate by 0.5% through introduction of new pesticide routines.

Defining a goal to include key parameters, resources, timeframe and metrics, brings greater clarity to a shared team vision. So, whenever you shape a goal, make it a SMART!

SMART Goal Template Example

To get the most out of the SMART Goals template, first utilise a simple brainstorm to capture all the goals your team may wish to deliver, then review it to identify the goal you wish to expand into a SMART Goal.

When you’re working with a large or distributed team, getting everyone together at the same time can be difficult, inconvenient, and costly. Using different technologies like video conferencing, online forms, and collaborative brainstorming software such as GroupMap can help overcome these challenges.

Objective: Define the clear objective your team wants to deliver

Brainstorm: Gather inputs from each person

Share and communicate: Confirm everyone’s understanding of the SMART GOAL

How to Use the SMART Goals Template to Run Better Meetings

Objective

Brainstorm

Share and Communicate

Objective

Brainstorm

Share and Communicate

Save Effort, Time and Money with GroupMap

GroupMap offers more than just an online digital whiteboard—it’s innovative platform is designed to enhance the quality of your team’s decisions. With features that prevent bias and make facilitation seamless, GroupMap ensures no single voice dominates and ensures productive, inclusive conversations.   Its intuitive interface is easy for anyone to use, and its scalable design supports small teams and large groups whether they are face to face or around the globe. Customisable templates and workflows keep discussions focused on objectives, helping you drive actionable outcomes each and every time.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts NOW.
Experience the power of GroupMap with our FREE 14 day trial.

Your free trial gives you access to all of our features, no credit card required.

DMAIC Analysis Template

What is a DMAIC Analysis Template?

This is a structured approach to solve problems using the roadmap to (D) Define, (M) Measure, (A) Analyze, (I) Improve and (C) Control a particular issue or problem. It was developed as part of the Six Sigma initiative as part of a quality improvement procedure.

It can help create significant improvements by offering a more streamlined approach with a 5 step plan. It can be implemented as a standalone quality improvement procedure or part of the process improvement initiatives such as lean.

The DMAIC Methodology aims to help teams improve by stepping through an iterative process that takes them through a problem definition phase all the way to being able to verify effectiveness of proposed solutions.

The 5 factors of DMAIC are as follows:

Define – This where the team starts by trying to develop a specific definition of the problem or goal. This helps to set the context for the team and to focus their attention to.
Measure – These are metrics that you can use to track or measure the problem. It could be a pareto chart based on error rates, hours of rework, throughput or creating a capability analysis.
Analyze – Now it’s time to get to the root cause of the issue and to look at potential causes of what might be creating the problem in the first place or is causing the problem to be repeated. The root causes can be listed and prioritised (e.g. through rating or dot voting) to pursue in the Improve step.
Improve – This is where the team looks at performance improvements that can address and eliminate root causes. This could be through the design of experiments that help to isolate a key factor or variable through to a skunkworks project through to an innovation process. The improvements should lead to positive changes in the items described in the measure step.
Control – These are actions and systems to ensure quality and sustainability of the improvements and to allow for adjustments over time.

Related Templates

Impact and Effort

Tips for Effective DMAIC Analysis

Work through one column from left to right. Jumping ahead will defeat the purposes of the DMAIC flow.
Use prioritisation techniques such as voting to gain consensus from the team in each step.
Capturing comments is a great way to seek clarification, get more understanding and ensure buy in as you go through the problem solving steps.
It's important to only focus on one key issue at a time per DMAIC. if there is a new issue that arises, then create a new DMAIC template and run that as a separate exercise.

References

Check out TeamRetro, our solution for distributed agile retrospectives

Why Should I Use DMAIC?

The DMAIC problem-solving method provides a logical problem solving approach, but has a strong emphasis on data. It can drive accountability and measurable success not just by a good definition of the problem, but adds on the elements of how you can measure and therefore control errors in a sustainable way. This helps to build team accountability and also focus on what elements of the problem the team can change in order to address the root causes for the problem.

One of the key features of this six sigma methodology approach is that it offers a logical approach to looking at an issue and can be run in it’s entirety for each problem or issue. This makes it suitable for teams that might be struggling with a current problem and not being able to see various solutions. All of this will help add value to the customer, reduce cycle time, help with employee motivation and also reduce error costs.

Who Should Use DMAIC?

Six Sigma Leaders and teams
Process improvement teams and coaches
Change managers and innovation teams
Project Managers

Example of a Six Sigma DMAIC Model Template

Having a simple template can be the canvas for your team to start improving process outputs and address any problems. You can start by sharing the process name, or overall goal as the main topic of your project. E.g. Error rates in production of good X. Then working through the DMAIC process, each person can share their ideas and thoughts collaboratively (or individually) based on their experience. It is usually advisable to step people through the template one column at a time, creating definition of one before moving to the other. Having a clear definition for example will then make the rest of the process more meaningful.

The DMAIC template offers a high level question which can help the team get started but you can of course customise this to suit. By using the thumbs up and thumbs down voting as you go through the steps will allow you to build consensus along the way. The outputs of of one step, e.g. Define, feeds into the next Measure, and so on. By using the consensus building approach, you get an overall view and perspective of how you have addressed the problem, the root causes and how you would monitor and measure over time.

How to Use the DMAIC Analysis Template to Run Better Meetings

Set the stage

Brainstorm

Variations

Set the stage

Brainstorm

Variations

Save Effort, Time and Money with GroupMap

GroupMap offers more than just an online digital whiteboard—it’s innovative platform is designed to enhance the quality of your team’s decisions. With features that prevent bias and make facilitation seamless, GroupMap ensures no single voice dominates and ensures productive, inclusive conversations.   Its intuitive interface is easy for anyone to use, and its scalable design supports small teams and large groups whether they are face to face or around the globe. Customisable templates and workflows keep discussions focused on objectives, helping you drive actionable outcomes each and every time.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts NOW.
Experience the power of GroupMap with our FREE 14 day trial.

Your free trial gives you access to all of our features, no credit card required.

What, So What, What Now?

What is a What, So What, What Now?

What? So What? Now What? is a reflective model that helps teams evaluate a shared experience or a recent event so that they can identify ways to improve or act. This critical thinking model was researched and developed by Rolfe et al. in 2001. It is also attributed to Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, the creators of Liberating Structures.

The What, So What, What Now exercise works on brainstorming and reflecting on:

Understanding the event (What?)
Making sense of the facts and implications (So What?)
Identifying the course of action or new solutions (Now What?)

Why Do a What, So What, What Now?

This model can be used for a critical reflection session through a crisis management situation where you need to define and frame the problem, analyse the impact and then consider the possible actions to address the issue.

Related templates

Tips for Effective Facilitation of What is a What, So What, What Now?

Remind participants that they should address the facts and observations before jumping into action.
Make sure you gather the right people from each section of your organization to be part of this exercise and identify the possible actions and implications from each angle.
A worthy goal is to ensure that there is consensus on the definition of the problem itself before looking at implications and solutions. If needed, reword the statements to reflect the group’s definition of the problem.
Communicate outcomes to stakeholders and regularly update progress on actions.

Check out TeamRetro, our solution for distributed agile retrospectives

Who Should Use this Technique?

This system is a reflective method that can be used by groups who would like to better understand problems and discover better solutions.

Examples include:

Crisis Management such as last minute cancellations due to a global pandemic or loss of venue booked.
Problem solving meetings where the delivery time has exceeded expectations.
Retrospective meetings to help teams work through continuous improvement issues.
Impact analysis meetings where a change of policy, an incident or event has repercussions on strategy, people or processes.
See last minute cancellations due to a global pandemic or loss of venue booked.

Use the What, So What, What Now to help with:

resolving crisis and issues strategically;
gaining new perspectives and understandings;
clarifying our assumptions and beliefs, and developing a clear rationale for our actions and approaches;
promoting a positive sense of self-awareness and self-confidence
taking informed action; and,
focusing on a philosophy of continuous growth and improvement.

What, So What, What Now Template

The What, So What, What Now template provides 3 separate columns and allows everyone in the team to collaboratively define the problem and share implications on the project or their work. The thumbs up and thumbs down feature lets you check for consensus along the way.Capture additional comments and move people from problem definition through to creating actions that address and overcome the issue.

How to Do a What, So What, What Now?

Tip: To get the most from the What, So What, What Now technique, gather input from a range participants with different perspectives. When you’re working with a large or distributed team, getting everyone together at the same time can be difficult, inconvenient, and costly. Using different technologies like video conferencing, online forms, and collaborative brainstorming software such as GroupMap can help overcome these challenges.

Brainstorm

Like / Dislike

Result

Brainstorm

Like / Dislike

Result

Save Effort, Time and Money with GroupMap

GroupMap offers more than just an online digital whiteboard—it’s innovative platform is designed to enhance the quality of your team’s decisions. With features that prevent bias and make facilitation seamless, GroupMap ensures no single voice dominates and ensures productive, inclusive conversations.   Its intuitive interface is easy for anyone to use, and its scalable design supports small teams and large groups whether they are face to face or around the globe. Customisable templates and workflows keep discussions focused on objectives, helping you drive actionable outcomes each and every time.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts NOW.
Experience the power of GroupMap with our FREE 14 day trial.

Your free trial gives you access to all of our features, no credit card required.

Value Proposition Canvas

What is the Value Proposition Canvas?

The Value Proposition Canvas is a tool developed by Dr Alexander Osterwalder to ensure there is a fit between a product and market by exploring the relationship between a Customer’s needs and the value proposition of the organization.

This can be a new or an existing product or service, but aims to align what an organization delivers to reduce the pains and increase the gains for their target customer.

The Value Proposition Canvas has two building blocks – customer profile and an organisation’s value proposition.

In the Customer Profile block, we look at the following elements:

Gains – the benefits which the customer expects and needs and the things which may increase likelihood of adopting a value proposition.
Pains – the negative experiences, emotions and risks that the customer experiences in the process of getting the job done.
Customer jobs – the functional, social and emotional tasks customers are trying to perform, problems they are trying to solve, and needs they wish to satisfy.

A customer profile is created for each customer segment, as each segment has distinct gains, pains and jobs.

In the Value Map block, we look at the value proposition that an organization offers through its products and/or services, including:

Gain creators – how the product or service creates customer gains and how it offers added value to the customer.
Pain relievers – a description of exactly how the product or service alleviates customer pains.
Products and services – the products and services which create gain and relieve pain, and which underpin the creation of value for the customer.

Why Do a Value Proposition Analysis?

The Value Proposition Canvas can help any business or organization to:

Define their customer profiles. By brainstorming and analyzing the Customer Profile block, companies can identify their customers’ major jobs-to-be-done, the pains they face when trying to accomplish their jobs-to-be-done, and the gains they perceive by getting their jobs done.

Visualize the value of the organizations’ product or service create. Define the most important components of your offering, how you relieve pain and create gains for your identified and targeted customers.
Achieve Product-Market fit. Adjust your Value Proposition based on the insights you gained from customer evidence and achieve Product-Market fit.

Related Templates

Tips for Effective Facilitation of Value Proposition Canvas

We suggest starting with the right side – the Customer Profile – if you are interviewing your customer segments. But you could begin at the left and map out your value proposition as far as you understand that and use that to imagine your ideal customer.
On the left side – the Value Proposition – we suggest starting with your product or service, but you could start with the pain relievers and gain creators and use those to brainstorm new products or services.
Align both sides by ensuring that the value propsition addresses the most significant pains and gains from the customer profile.
You may find that there are sections of the canvas you can’t complete and so you may need to pause and go do some research – client interviews, surveys, online research – to gather more information before continuing with the canvas.

References

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., Smith, A. (2014) Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want, John Wiley & Sons.

Check out TeamRetro, our solution for distributed agile retrospectives

Who Should Use a Value Proposition Canvas?

The Value Proposition Canvas is a great tool for marketing experts, product owners, and value creators and their teams, who work to develop products and services to a targeted audience. It is also valuable for any teams and organizations who are trying to understand how customers make decisions and what offers to create that they will find appealing.

When Should I Complete a Value Proposition Canvas?

Understanding who your customers are, including what their lifestyles and real needs are to help create relevant products and services.
Develop value propositions for your products and services for effective communications and marketing to your identified customers.
Increasing the sales and profitability of your products and services.
Reducing time wasted on developing ideas that customers may not be interested in.
Improving or innovating new products or services.

The Right Way to use the Value Proposition Canvas

The value proposition template is essentially made up of 2 blocks with one being what the customer segment is and how we might best service their needs. You start by completing the various aspects of the canvas and then look for gaps and alignment to validate that what you are able or can deliver meets the needs of the customer.

While the canvas itself depicts the customer profile on the right and the natural inclination is for you to start with the goods and services of the business first, it is actually more important to firstly identify what your customer needs and expectations are. This way you are focussing on the needs of your customers and ensuring that the elements that you can control (what your product or services actually deliver) can be refined to ensure that there is alignment.

The next step is to then identify gaps and check that there is alignment between the 2 areas. This allows you to then create experiments, ask more questions or create action items that will help you move towards delighting the customer and growing your business. A really easy way is to have the team vote for the areas that need the most discussion.

Customer Profile

This section looks at what jobs or goals the specific customer has and what are their positive and negative states that they experience.

Start here.

Focus on just one segment at a time so that you do not confuse or have mixed messages in your planning process when completing the lean canvas.

Segments could be by age, social status, interest or psychographic.

By only having a single focus on the segment, it makes it easier to identify the highest priority jobs, pains and gains related to that segment. This helps you understand customer preferences, biases and thoughts.

The size of the segment can be refined if you are finding that it is too broad or too large and it starts to feel generic. For example, all people between 8 and 18 who use sunscreen is more specific than the Youth Market for sunscreen.

Value Proposition

This section is about what products and services are targeted at the segment and the key benefits provided when the customer buys from us.

Align here.

This is where you might list the actual or proposed services or goods that you might use to service the customer segment.

The goal here is not to simply list everything that you may do, but to highlight the key ones that are servicing that customer’s need.

For example, Sunscreen targeted at the ages 8 to 18 may be an aesthetic brand which has a shorter application time frame but higher SPF rating that matches their behaviour but might not include higher priced brands that have skin moisturising and anti-wrinkle qualities.

A well-suited message then connects the consumers mind to your brand or product if the value proposition is clear and meets their specific needs.

How to Complete a Value Proposition Canvas

Start a Value Proposition for a product or service by filling out the template and then where there are gaps. You can use the gaps as validation to run more experiments, ask more questions, try out new ideas. By understanding your customers’ preferences, biases and thoughts, you’ll find new ways to delight them and grow your business.

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Discuss the Results

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Discuss the Results

Save Effort, Time and Money with GroupMap

GroupMap offers more than just an online digital whiteboard—it’s innovative platform is designed to enhance the quality of your team’s decisions. With features that prevent bias and make facilitation seamless, GroupMap ensures no single voice dominates and ensures productive, inclusive conversations.   Its intuitive interface is easy for anyone to use, and its scalable design supports small teams and large groups whether they are face to face or around the globe. Customisable templates and workflows keep discussions focused on objectives, helping you drive actionable outcomes each and every time.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts NOW.
Experience the power of GroupMap with our FREE 14 day trial.

Your free trial gives you access to all of our features, no credit card required.

Force Field Analysis

What is a Force Field Analysis?

Force Field Analysis is a tool that helps a change practitioner to visually map and analyze the driving and resisting forces behind a project, a decision or initiative. A Force Field Analysis does this identifying two forces that are arranged as opposing forces or as a “force field.” These two forces are driving forces (those that are working in the direction of the change) and resisting and/or restraining forces (those that tend to support the status quo).

Force Field Analysis is a powerful decision-making tool that was originally developed by Kurt Lewin in 1951. Today, the Force Field Analysis model is still used by many organizations for supporting change processes.

The idea behind Force Field Analysis is that situations are maintained by an equilibrium between forces that drive change and others that resist change. So, for change to happen, the driving forces must be strengthened or the resisting forces weakened.

A Force Field Analysis template in GroupMap helps you to visually map and brainstorm, in real time, the driving and resisting forces around decisions to be made.

Why do a Force Field Analysis?

When you are making difficult or challenging decisions, using an effective and structured decision-making technique such as the Force Field Analysis can help to improve the quality of your decisions and increase your chances of success.

Conducting a Force Field Analysis will help you to see the bigger picture, to identify and overcome obstacles and to develop a plan which will significantly increase the likelihood of a successful outcome.

Related Templates

Anchors and Engines
PEST Analysis
Risk Assessment

Tips for Effective Force Field Analysis

The analysis is best carried out in small groups who are directly involved in the change implementation process.
Change affects everyone so it is important that everyone else who is also likely to be affected by the change is kept in the loop. This will gain everyone’s commitment and support for the change itself.
Involve everyone affected in the planning, development and decision-making from the very beginning.
Use anonymity to make sure all team members feel safe when participating around sensitive issues.

References

Lewin, Kurt. 1946. “Force Field Analysis.” The 1973 Annual Handbook for Group Facilitators. 111-13.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force-field_analysis

Check out TeamRetro, our solution for distributed agile retrospectives

Who Can Use a Force Field Analysis?

Anyone involved in the change implementation process or need to diagnose problems can use the Force Field Analysis. This includes but is not limited to:

Human Resources
C level suites / executives
Teams, departments, sections that are focused on change management
Change management consultants

Use the Force Field Analysis model to help with:

Analyzing the balance of power
Identifying the key roles involved in decision-making
Identifying who supports and opposes change within the organization
Exploring ways to influence those who are against change
Deciding whether to go ahead with a proposed change or not

Force Field Analysis Template

A Force Field Analysis Template provides a visual representation of the driving forces and restraining forces for and against an initiative, a project or change proposal.

Common dimensions used for a Force Field Analysis map include:

Driving Forces

What are the creators of change or factors that are driving change to happen or be considered

Examples can include:

Competitive advantage, need for increased productivity, overwhelming customer request, new technologies, internal team requests, new trade or commercial restrictions and requirements, to achieve funding grants & initiatives, etc.

Questions to ask:

Why do we need to make these changes?
Who is requesting for this change and why?

Restraining Forces

What are the obstacles for change or opposition that is expected to prevent change from happening.

Examples include:

Associated costs for change, opposition from some team members, potential unhappy customers and lost loyalty and revenue, available resources to manage change, time available to make the change/s on time, etc.

Questions to ask:

What factors will affect us moving forward?
Who will oppose us moving forward or making changes?

The resulting brainstorm allows for scoring to understand how important the forces are and how to address them in a further action plan or SWOT analysis.

How to Do a Force Field Analysis

Assemble a small group – between 5 – 9 people – who are directly involved in the change implementation process.

There are six general steps to completing a Force Field Analysis and the time taken will depend on the organization, the complexity of the forces, the number of people involved, amongst other things.

Tip At the end of the analysis, it is expected that an action plan will be available or is on the list to be developed to progress change for a project or initiative in a successful manner.

Scope

Define

Brainstorm

Rate

Report

Scope

Define

Brainstorm

Rate

Report

Save Effort, Time and Money with GroupMap

GroupMap offers more than just an online digital whiteboard—it’s innovative platform is designed to enhance the quality of your team’s decisions. With features that prevent bias and make facilitation seamless, GroupMap ensures no single voice dominates and ensures productive, inclusive conversations.   Its intuitive interface is easy for anyone to use, and its scalable design supports small teams and large groups whether they are face to face or around the globe. Customisable templates and workflows keep discussions focused on objectives, helping you drive actionable outcomes each and every time.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts NOW.
Experience the power of GroupMap with our FREE 14 day trial.

Your free trial gives you access to all of our features, no credit card required.

Start Stop Retrospective

What is a Start Stop Retrospective?

A start stop retrospective is a simple and effective way for teams to reflect on their recent experiences and decide on what things they should change as they move forward.

Start – activities are those things the team will begin doing in the next cycle.
Stop – looks back at the previous cycle of the project to identify which things didn’t work and should cease.

Why Do a Start Stop Retrospective?

The start stop retrospective is one of the simplest project review techniques and requires no special equipment or knowledge to complete.

This technique starts by identifying actions that team members think they should “do” rather than “ideas and issues” that require solutions and then the development of an action plan as with Agile and 4Ls Retrospectives.

This retrospective technique:

Gives teams an opportunity to review how they are going and identify improvements they can implement in the future.
Makes it easier for teams to clarify issues, weight the impact of ideas, and reach a consensus based on shared priorities.
Is very action orientated and provides momentum and energy for the team. Each item on the list results in behavioral change.
Empowers teams to continuously improve the way they work.

Tips for Effective Start Stop Retrospective

Use technology to involve critical people in different locations rather than miss their contribution.
Minimize Groupthink by brainstorming ideas individually then combining issues to get the overall picture.
Be specific rather than broad when defining actions.
Provide adequate time in the session to discuss and vote on actions.

Check out Teamretro, our solution for distributed agile retrospectives

Who Should Do a Start Stop Retrospective?

Because of it’s simplicity this retrospective method is suitable for:

All kinds of project teams including software development
Program reviews
Executive reviews
Personal performance evaluations
4Ls retrospective
Agile retrospective
Starfish retrospective
Anchors and engines
DAKI retrospective

Start Stop Retrospective Template

Start

Activities that may:

improve processes
reduce waste
have a positive impact on the way the team operates

As with “stop” activities, consider both technical and behavioral aspects.

Stop

Activities that:

are inefficient
waste time or resources
have a negative impact on the way people feel or the way things work

Activities on this list may be technical or behavioral things and should cease.

How to Run a Start Stop Retrospective

A start stop retrospective is one of the simplest review tools. It require no specialized equipment or skills, other than the ability to facilitate group discussions.

If the review team is scattered over different locations, there are challenges ensuring everyone is involved, and facilitators may need to look beyond the usual sticky notes and whiteboards to video conferencing, web-based applications such as Google docs, and specialized online collaboration tools such as GroupMap.

Most start stop retrospectives will take less than 20 minutes. You can time-box stages of the process to keep the team on track.

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Share

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Share

Save Effort, Time and Money with GroupMap

GroupMap offers more than just an online digital whiteboard—it’s innovative platform is designed to enhance the quality of your team’s decisions. With features that prevent bias and make facilitation seamless, GroupMap ensures no single voice dominates and ensures productive, inclusive conversations.   Its intuitive interface is easy for anyone to use, and its scalable design supports small teams and large groups whether they are face to face or around the globe. Customisable templates and workflows keep discussions focused on objectives, helping you drive actionable outcomes each and every time.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts NOW.
Experience the power of GroupMap with our FREE 14 day trial.

Your free trial gives you access to all of our features, no credit card required.

Start Stop Continue Retrospective

What is a Start Stop Continue Retrospective?

A start stop continue retrospective is a simple and effective way for teams to reflect on their recent experiences and decide on what things they should change as they move forward.

Start – activities are those things the team will begin doing in the next cycle.
Stop – looks back at the previous cycle of the project to identify which things didn’t work and should cease.
Continue – identifies things that worked in the previous cycle and need to be part of the team’s core activities.

Why Do a Start Stop Continue Retrospective?

The start stop continue retrospective is one of the simplest project review techniques and requires no special equipment or knowledge to complete.

This technique starts by identifying actions that team members think they should “do.” The method differs from Agile and 4Ls Retrospectives which develop ideas and issues requiring solutions first and THEN develop an action plan.

This retrospective technique:

Gives teams an opportunity to review how they are going and identify improvements they can implement in the future.
Makes it easier for teams to clarify issues, weight the impact of ideas, and reach a consensus based on shared priorities.
Is very action orientated and provides momentum and energy for the team. Each item on the list results in behavioral change.
Empowers teams to continuously improve the way they work.

Related Templates

4Ls Retrospective
Agile Retrospective
Starfish Retrospective
Anchors and Engines
DAKI Retrospective

Tips for Effective Start Stop Continue Retrospective

Use technology to involve critical people in different locations rather than miss their contribution.
Minimize Groupthink by brainstorming ideas individually then combining issues to get the overall picture.
Be specific rather than broad when defining actions.
Provide adequate time in the session to discuss and vote on actions.

Check out TeamRetro, our solution for distributed agile retrospectives

Who Should Do a Start Stop Continue Retrospective?

Because of it’s simplicity this retrospective method is suitable for:

All kinds of project teams including software development
Program reviews
Executive reviews
Personal performance evaluations

Start Stop Continue Retrospective Template

Start

Activities that may:

improve processes
reduce waste
have a positive impact on the way the team operates

As with “stop” activities, consider both technical and behavioral aspects. If they work they can go onto the continue list in the next review.

Stop

Activities that:

are inefficient
waste time or resources
have a negative impact on the way people feel or the way things work

Activities on this list may be technical or behavioral things and should cease.

Continue

Activities the team has tried and were successful but are not yet part of common practice.

Once the activities are part of the way things are done, add them to procedure manuals and checklists and remove from this list.

How to Run a Start Stop Continue Retrospective

A start stop continue retrospective is one of the simplest review tools. It require no specialized equipment or skills, other than the ability to facilitate group discussions.

If the review team is scattered over different locations, there are challenges ensuring everyone is involved. Facilitators may need to look beyond the usual sticky notes and whiteboards to video conferencing, web-based applications such as Google Docs, and specialized online collaboration tools such as GroupMap.

Most start stop continue retrospectives will take less than 20 minutes. You can time-box stages of the process to keep the team on track.

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Share

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

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GroupMap offers more than just an online digital whiteboard—it’s innovative platform is designed to enhance the quality of your team’s decisions. With features that prevent bias and make facilitation seamless, GroupMap ensures no single voice dominates and ensures productive, inclusive conversations.   Its intuitive interface is easy for anyone to use, and its scalable design supports small teams and large groups whether they are face to face or around the globe. Customisable templates and workflows keep discussions focused on objectives, helping you drive actionable outcomes each and every time.

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RAID Log template

risk-assumption-issus-and-dependencies-log

RAID logging is a simple, but useful, project management technique for assessing factors affecting successful project outcomes. The RAID methodology identifies risks (R), assumptions (A), issues (I), and dependencies (D) that a project may have – allowing each to be proactively managed.

Urgent Important Matrix

An Urgent Important Matrix is a simple but effective tool for prioritizing your to-do list based on the level of urgency and importance of each task.

Impact Effort Matrix

Discover the most important ideas and projects that will give you the most value out of your team’s efforts.

Category: Project

What are SMART Goals?

Related Templates

Meeting Tips for Effective SMART Goals

References

Why Use SMART Goals?

When Should I Shape a SMART Goal?

SMART Goal Template Example

How to Use the SMART Goals Template to Run Better Meetings

Objective

Brainstorm

Share and Communicate

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What is a DMAIC Analysis Template?

Related Templates

Tips for Effective DMAIC Analysis

Why Should I Use DMAIC?

Who Should Use DMAIC?

Example of a Six Sigma DMAIC Model Template

How to Use the DMAIC Analysis Template to Run Better Meetings

Set the stage

Brainstorm

Variations

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What is a What, So What, What Now?

Why Do a What, So What, What Now?

Related templates

Tips for Effective Facilitation of What is a What, So What, What Now?

Who Should Use this Technique?

What, So What, What Now Template

How to Do a What, So What, What Now?

Brainstorm

Like/Dislike

Results

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What is the Value Proposition Canvas?

Why Do a Value Proposition Analysis?

Related Templates

Tips for Effective Facilitation of Value Proposition Canvas

References

Who Should Use a Value Proposition Canvas?

When Should I Complete a Value Proposition Canvas?

The Right Way to use the Value Proposition Canvas

Customer Profile

Value Proposition

How to Complete a Value Proposition Canvas

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Share

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What is a Force Field Analysis?

Why do a Force Field Analysis?

Tips for Effective Force Field Analysis

Who Can Use a Force Field Analysis?

Force Field Analysis Template

Driving Forces

Restraining Forces

How to Do a Force Field Analysis

Scope

Define

Brainstorm

Score

Report

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What is a Start Stop Retrospective?

Why Do a Start Stop Retrospective?

Tips for Effective Start Stop Retrospective

Who Should Do a Start Stop Retrospective?

Start Stop Retrospective Template

Start

Stop

How to Run a Start Stop Retrospective

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Share

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What is a Start Stop Continue Retrospective?

Why Do a Start Stop Continue Retrospective?