Overview

The Abstract Wikipedia team runs a 45-minute retrospective every two weeks to reflect on what went well, what needs improving, and give each other shoutouts and props. The goal is to maintain engagement and understanding, and to continuously improve our culture and product development processes.

Retro Board & Notes

We are using EasyRetro, which is available to Foundation staff via a request process. The categories for the board are:

Kudos and shoutouts
What’s going well?
What could we improve?
What is confusing?

During discussion, notes and action items are captured in this doc.

Scope

By default, we reflect on the previous two weeks. On occasion, we cover specific topics. We determine these ahead of time and request pre-work from the team as needed. For retros that occur close to quarterly planning, we reflect on the previous quarter as a whole.

Roles & Responsibilities

Role	Responsibilities	Notes
Driver	Make sure calendar event is up-to-date Create retro board Attach retro board to calendar event, and add the link to this Retro page Prepare and request pre-work from the team as needed Host the retrospective Follow up on action items that come out of the retro as appropriate	By default the driver is the engineering manager If the EM is not available for a given retro, they should find a substitute driver
Participant	Do pre-work as requested by the driver Participate in the retro with input and discussion Follow up on action items that come out of the retro as appropriate

Process

1. Before the Retro

1-2 days ahead of time, the driver creates a new board using EasyRetro, attaches it to the retro calendar invite, and links to it from this Retro page.
- EasyRetro lets you cap the number of votes per person (we set ours to 6)
- Ping the team to give them a heads up and let them know they can add items ahead of time (reactions can be added ahead of time, but voting should not happen until the retro)

If there is a special topic we want to cover, confirm this with the team and request any pre-work needed

2. During the Retro

Allow 5-10 minutes to fill out the board and read cards in a silent gather
Allow 5 minutes to vote and add comments, then sort the board by number of votes
Allow 5 minutes to celebrate and read our kudos!
Discuss the top 3-4 topics with the most votes
Agree on next steps and action items

3. After the Retro

Complete action items — each person is responsible for completing their action items from the retro and communicating its completion
Driver is responsible for finding the appropriate channels to follow up on topics that need further discussion

Abstract Wikipedia team/Retrospectives