Starfish Retrospective
Calibrate instead of overhaul — dial behaviours up and down rather than starting from zero.
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The board
01
MORE OF
What should we do more of?
02
LESS OF
What should we do less of?
03
KEEP
What is at the right level?
The Starfish retrospective replaces binary judgments with dials. Instead of asking whether something is good or bad, it asks for calibration: what deserves more investment, what deserves less, and what is at exactly the right level and should be protected.
That nuance matters for mature teams. After a year of retrospectives, few things are outright broken — but plenty of things are slightly over- or under-done: too many status meetings, not enough pairing, exactly the right amount of code review. Starfish captures that middle ground.
When to use More of · Less of · Keep
- Mature teams whose processes work but need tuning, not replacement
- When previous retros keep producing 'add a new process' actions and the team is drowning in process
- Capacity conversations: More of / Less of maps directly onto where time goes
- As a change-management pulse after a big process change has had a few sprints to settle
How to run it in Retromik
- 1
Create cards anonymously
Everyone adds cards to each column at the same time. In Retromik, cards stay concealed and anonymous while people write, so nobody anchors on the loudest voice.
- 2
Vote on what matters
Each person places a limited set of voting tokens on the cards they think deserve discussion. Limited tokens force real prioritization.
- 3
Discuss the top cards
Walk through the highest-voted cards one by one. The facilitator steers the focus; anyone can comment on any card.
- 4
Reveal and group themes
Authors are revealed and the facilitator drags related cards into named themes, turning scattered notes into patterns.
- 5
Commit to action items
Convert the discussion into specific, owned action items with due dates — the part most retrospectives skip.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Starfish retrospective?
A retrospective format that calibrates team behaviours across five classic zones — keep doing, more of, less of, start, and stop. Retromik's template focuses on the three calibration zones (More of, Less of, Keep); pure additions and removals fit naturally at the discussion stage or in a Start-Stop-Continue retro.
When is Starfish better than Start, Stop, Continue?
When nothing is fundamentally broken. Start/Stop framing pushes toward adding and removing things; Starfish's More of/Less of framing pushes toward adjusting things you already do — usually the cheaper and safer change.
What belongs in the Keep column?
Practices at exactly the right intensity — and that is not filler. Naming what works protects it from being optimized away later, and voting on Keep cards shows the team which habits it genuinely values.
How many votes should each person get?
Three to five tokens works well. In Retromik you configure vote tokens per board, and each person's tokens are limited so the voting phase forces real prioritization.
Related templates
Start · Stop · Continue
The most actionable retro format — every column maps directly to a behaviour change.
ViewWind · Anchors · Rocks
A visual metaphor the whole team gets instantly: what propels us, what drags us, what could sink us.
ViewMad · Sad · Glad
An emotional check-in that surfaces how the team actually feels — before it becomes attrition.
ViewRun your next retro with More of · Less of · Keep
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