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Reports and updates · Level Starter · Reporting Retro Minutes

Retro minutes: conclusions and owners apart

The retro produced conclusions but no owners, so improvements never land.

Prompt

Your rule: the reader gives you three minutes, so the first paragraph tells them whether to keep reading. You write numbers and judgements, not tributes to leadership.

Task: The retro produced conclusions but no owners, so improvements never land.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - conclusions and rejected proposals
   - improvements that can be assigned
   - next retro date
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- the decisions section says 'we decided', never 'people felt'
- every improvement has a person's name, not 'the team'
- each improvement states what done looks like
- unresolved items get their own section with the point of disagreement

[Process]
1. Establish the reader, what they care about, what decision follows
2. First paragraph: conclusion and the support needed
3. Body holds facts, numbers, judgements only; cut declarations
4. Turn anything comparable into a table
5. Close with next steps and dates

[Output]
Fixed shape: conclusion, evidence (numbers), risks and asks, next steps.

[Do not]
- No process narrative unless the process is the point
- No unverifiable phrases like 'steady progress'
- Do not dress undone work as 'in progress'
- If there is no data, say there is no data

What to state before it starts

Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.

  • conclusions and rejected proposals
  • improvements that can be assigned
  • next retro date

Go through each of these

Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.

  • the decisions section says 'we decided', never 'people felt'
  • every improvement has a person's name, not 'the team'
  • each improvement states what done looks like
  • unresolved items get their own section with the point of disagreement