Effective Retrospectives are the key to high performing Agile teams - but what happens when this team is distributed across several time zones and physical locations? How does a ScrumMaster bring that high level of team engagement so critical to continuous improvement when the team is not physically co-located? At Sococo, our success as an Agile team lies in the self-examination practices we’ve established with the help of our Agile partners. This presentation is part of the Virtual Life Webinar Series, focusing on building a community of distributed workers and addressing common topics we all face. The panelists in this webinar are David Horowitz with Retrium and AgileBill Krebs. It was moderated by Mandy Ross, Director of Social and Content Marketing at Sococo.

1. #SococoLife Webinar Series
Presented to you in partnership by:
Optimizing Retrospectives on
Distributed Agile Teams

2. Agenda
● :05 Introductions
● :25 Four Distributed Team Social Epidemics
● :15 Five Cures to Fix What Ails You
● :05 Retrospective Tactical Mini Demo
● :20 Q&A
● :05 Key Takeaways & Wrap Up

3. Introductions!
David Horowitz - Panelist
David is the CEO and Co-Founder of Retrium, a company dedicated to making
retrospectives easy and effective for distributed teams. David is a passionate
Agilist and a true believer in the power of retrospectives as a driver of
continuous improvement. In addition to Retrium, David has another full time
job: he is the father of two little ones!

4. Introductions!
AgileBill Krebs - Panelist
"AgileBill" Krebs has over 20 years of experience that includes development,
performance, as well as Agile training and coaching to over 2,000 people.
He holds the 'grand slam' of advanced Agile certifications, including SPC, CSP,
PMI-ACP, IGQI, and ICP-AC. He is continuing his education with a graduate
degree specializing in distributed teams.
Currently, Bill hosts the Distributed Agile Study Group, speaks at conferences,
teaches, and coaches Agile teams.

5. Introductions!
Mandy Ross - Moderator
Mandy recently moved into the role of Director of Marketing for Sococo, after
serving as Director of Program Management since 2012. Her past employers
include Handspring, Palm, Apple, Sony and Boeing.
A telecommuter since 2005, she lives for helping distributed teams establish
remote work best practices by connecting people to create thought
leadership for distributed teams.

6. Let’s Get Started!
Optimizing Retrospectives on Distributed
Agile Teams

7. An Agile retrospective is a
meeting that's held at the
end of an iteration in Agile
software development.
During the retrospective, the
team reflects on what
happened in the iteration
and identifies actions for
improvement going
forward.
What IS a retrospective?

8. Part 1:
Four Social Epidemics
Impacting Distributed Team
Retrospectives

9. Epidemic #1
Social Loafing
● It’s very easy for remote workers to
space out during group activities.
● In the virtual world there are fewer
ways to understand if meeting
attendees are actually participating.
● Retrospective effectiveness is directly
proportional to the ability/desire of
team members to involve themselves
in the process of self-examination.

10. Epidemic #2
Social Anxiety
● Many people are uncomfortable talking
about problems openly.
● Remote teams have fewer social cues
and less ability to read reactions, which
can create unease.
● Retrospectives rely on people feeling
safe enough to be honest about their
feelings and not being afraid to surface
issues

11. Epidemic #3
Regression to the Mean
● The principle under which highly
performing group members end up
matching the performance of their
less talented counterparts.
● Collective brainstorming dilutes the
thinking of the participants, and the
quality of ideas averages itself out.
● A strong breadth of ideas surfaced
during retrospectives are foundational
to continuous improvement.

12. Epidemic #4
Production Blocking
● Distributed teams thrive when they
can communicate as a group.
● Most media create single-threaded
conversations.
● An artificial thought funnel is created,
and good input is lost as the funnel
narrows.
● As the breadth of input diminishes, so
does the effectiveness of the
retrospective.

13. 5 Cures for Your
Retrospective
Social Ailments

14. Cure #1
Focus on relationships and
interactions.
● Closeness is built by sharing about
yourself, and not just work stuff.
● Be sensitive to time zones and schedules.
● If your team is distributed, focus on being
good at being distributed: encourage
intentional “random” interactions with
others.
● Do this outside of the retrospective to build
trust and empathy you have established
with each other.

15. Cure #2
Have a fantastic facilitator who
knows distributed teams
● Encourages participation by creating a
safe online space to communicate and
a foundation of trust
● Empowers team by moderating the
conversation so that all perspectives
are uniquely included
● Creates a sense of value and clarity
● Understands differences in cultural
values around speaking up and
disagreement

16. Cure #3
Keep the playing field even.
● Extroverts more easily dominate
conversations in virtual space, and
introverts more easily exclude themselves
● Gather individual written feedback
privately
● Moderate a broader discussion to allow
the less verbal folks to get their ideas in
● Facilitation of private thinking creates
less bias

17. Cure #4
Agree to the Retrospective
Prime Directive
Regardless of what we discover, we
understand and truly believe that
everyone did the best job they could,
given what they knew at the time,
their skills and abilities, the resources
available, and the situation at hand.
Norman L. Kerth, Elite Systems

18. Cure #5
The Right Tool for the Right Job
● Different teams need different tools for
their retrospectives.
● Successful Agile leaders will be on top of
the challenges the team faces, and will
always be actively looking for solutions.
● Effective tools are easy, natural and fun to
use - removes the effort required to make
oneself heard in Retrospectives..

19. Real Time Demo:
How We Conduct Our
Retrospectives

20. Be sure to watch the webinar to catch
this portion of the presentation! WATCH

21. Q & A
Q & A
Be sure to watch the webinar recording to catch this portion of the presentation!
WATCH

22. Research Citation
Why Group Brainstorming Is a Waste of Time
By Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Professor of Business Psychology at University College London, and a faculty
member at Columbia University
Harvard Business Review, March 25, 2015
https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-group-brainstorming-is-a-waste-of-time

23. Key takeaways
● Successful retrospectives with enthusiastic participation of the
entire team are foundational to building trust and continuously
improving your distributed Agile team.
● Keeping your distributed team socially engaged during
retrospectives is a combination of focused leadership, skilled
facilitation, and the right toolset.
● Ensuring the entire team has the same opportunities to share their
ideas and get input on them will elicit the most useful feedback.

24. Exclusive Webinar Offer!
Available ONLY to
attendees of this webinar:
a free, 1-hour strings-free
consultation with David on
how to optimize your
distributed team
retrospectives!

25. You might be interested in...
http://distributed-agile-teams.org/
A conference with a focus at the cross section of distributed teams and Agile!
NO WAY!

26. #SococoLife Webinar Series
Thanks for coming!