Most retros don't stall for lack of a format. They stall because the same three people talk, the hard thing stays unsaid, and nobody mentions what went well. A small game changes who speaks and what gets said.
This guide covers two games built into Retromik, Hidden Roles and token voting, and four you can run with nothing but a whiteboard. Each one fixes a specific problem, so pick the one that matches yours.
Everyone sees the elephant in the room, nobody names it
Hidden RolesThe board is all problems, the good stuff gets lost
Hidden RolesEvery card gets one vote and nothing stands out
Token votingPeople arrive distracted and stay quiet for ten minutes
Weather reportThe team agrees on symptoms, not causes
Five whysA few people get a secret mandate. One is asked to make sure the hard truth gets named, another to champion something that's genuinely working. Nobody knows who has which role, so nobody is on the spot, and the uncomfortable card reads as the team's, not one person's.
This is the card each person sees when the facilitator deals. The popup looks the same for everyone, role or not.
Your secret role · only you
If the team's been dancing around a hard truth, make sure it gets named. No one will know it was you — you can still write anywhere.
Your secret role · only you
Champion something that's genuinely working, so it doesn't get lost under the problems. You stay anonymous — you can still write anywhere.
Your secret role · only you
No secret role this round — just write honestly. Not everyone gets one, and that's what keeps it anonymous.
Hidden Roles is a switch on the create screen. It works with every template: a role tells you what to bring up, not which column to write in.
In the Create phase the facilitator presses "Deal secret roles". The draw is random among everyone on the board, guests included. The facilitator is never in the draw.
Role-holders read their mandate, everyone else reads "No special role". Since everybody gets a popup, nobody can tell who was picked by watching faces.
Cards stay anonymous like any other. Someone who doesn't want their role can pass it; it stays unfilled rather than moving to someone else.
There is no reveal at the end, and the facilitator never learns who held which role. That's the point: the card belongs to the team.
Works best with five or more people. The draw always leaves at least one person without a role, so with only two participants besides the facilitator, just one role goes out.
Instead of a stack of identical dots, everyone gets a small budget of tokens in three kinds, one of each by default. Placing your only Risk token is a real choice, and the kind of token says why a card matters, not just that it does.
Impact, Risk and Momentum are the default names. You can rename them when you create the retro, for example Must / Should / Could or Value / Focus / Energy, and give each kind more tokens.
Opening · 5 min
Each person describes their sprint as weather: sunny, foggy, a storm on Thursday. One sentence each. It gets every voice into the room early, and the forecast often hints where to dig.
Opening · 3 min
Everyone rates anonymously from 1 to 5 how freely they can speak today. If the numbers are low, say so and adjust: smaller groups, written input first, or a lighter topic.
Discussion · 10 min
Take the top-voted problem and ask "why?" until the answer is something the team can change. Twist: privately ask one person beforehand to keep the whys going, so the facilitator isn't the only one pushing.
Closing · 2 min
Everyone shows 1 to 5 fingers: was this retro worth the time? Ask the lowest and highest score what would move them. It's the quickest way to improve the retro itself.
Short, structured activities used inside a sprint retrospective to change how the team talks: who speaks, what gets said and how the team decides. Good ones take a few minutes and fix a specific problem, like a quiet room or a vote where nothing stands out.
No. The facilitator only starts the draw. Each person can see their own role and nobody else's, and there's no list of who got what.
They press Pass. The role stays unfilled for that retro, and nobody is told it was passed.
No. People who join with the board link take part in the draw like everyone else. Only the facilitator needs a free account to create the retro.
Yes. Roles say what to bring up, not where to write it, so they fit Start/Stop/Continue, Sailboat, Mad/Sad/Glad or a custom board.
Create a free retro with Hidden Roles already switched on. Your team joins with a link, no sign-up.
Create a free retro