Probably everyone has heard of retrospectives. How you to use them to take a look at past events and learn how to improve in the future with your team. But have you ever tried to run a retrospective on your own? I practice “personal retrospective” for some time and would like to tell a bit about my approach, my mistakes and share my experiences. What makes a personal retrospective different from team retrospectives? How can you adapt them to yourself for learning and improving your effectiveness? Which simple ideas can help you get started with “personal retrospectives”?

1. PERSONAL RETROSPECTIVES
W - J A X 2 0 1 4

2. @JTHOENES #WJAX
Johannes Thönes - Developer & Devil’s Advocate
jthoenes@thoughtworks.com

3. WHAT IS A
PERSONAL
RETROSPECTIVE?

4. LEARNING

5. REFLECTION

6. EXERCISES

7. WHAT HAPPENED LAST MONTH
Make a list of
everything important
to you last month.
You can look at your
calendar, the
pictures on your
phone or anything
else.
!
You have 3 minutes.

8. GATHER DATA

9. TIMELINE

10. The first principle is that you must
not fool yourself and you are the
easiest person to fool.
Richard P. Feynman

11. FEEDBACK

12. FEEDBACK MIND MAP

13. WHAT YOU LIKED AND WHAT YOU HATED
Make two lists - one left, one right.
!
On the left side write the positive: things you liked, love
or admire
!
On the right side write the negative: things that made
you feel bad
You have 2 minutes

14. RIGHT QUESTION

15. FIVE WHYS

16. GOALS & ACTIONS

17. WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Think of things you can
do, to have more of the
things on the left
(positive) and less of the
things on the right
(negative). Find as many
things you could do as
possible.
!
You have 2 minutes

18. CHOOSE

19. Measurable
Specific
Achievable
Relevant
Time-boxed

20. I want to learn Haskell.

21. Measurable
Time-boxed
In three month, I want to be able to
write a Twitter clone using idiomatic
Haskell. For this I will use Thursday
evenings and Sunday mornings.
Specific
Achievable
Relevant

22. 48 HOURS

23. CHOSE A SMART GOAL
From your list pick the most important thing to do. Restructure it to a
SMART goal:
• Specific: Are you clear which steps you want to take?
• Measurable: How do you measure, when you have achieved it?
• Achievable: Do you have enough resources and time to do it?
• Relevant: Will it help you improve the thing you want to?
• Time-boxed: When do you want to be done?
Make sure, you can start with the
goal within the next 48 hours. Also,
add the steps to your ToDo list, if
you use one.
!
!
You have 2 minutes

24. RITUAL

25. MUSIC

26. LETTER TO MYSELF

27. WRITE A LETTER TO YOURSELF
Write a letter to yourself summarising your
insights and your wishes for the next three
month based on what you learned here.
!
Ask the person next to you, to send you the
letter in three month.
!
You have 3 minutes

28. ADAPT YOUR TOOLS

29. WHAT IS YOUR WAY?

30. On personal retrospectives google for:
!
Ilias Bartolini
Linda Rising
Pat Kua
Dan Abel
Johannes Thönes
!
or read:
!
Norman Kerth

31. PERSONAL RETROSPECTIVES
Johannes Thönes
jthoenes@thoughtworks.com
@jthoenes
!
W-JAX 2014

33. HEARTBEAT

34. DIARY

35. PLAN