Description of this workshop
Retrospective Park is a workshop format based on Jurassic Park. It's intended for teams familiar with retrospectives who wish to shake up their habits.
After identifying the problems that occurred during the previous sprint, the workshop is designed for the participants to brainstorm solutions while facing certain constraints. To achieve this, each participant is assigned a role that corresponds to one of the characters in the film.
- Dennis Nedry: If my solution was a hack (to get around the problem)?
- Ray Arnold: If my solution was a computer program?
- Ian Malcom: If my solution was getting together around a table?
- John Hammond: If my solution was about doing something great?
- Alan Grant: If my solution was not technological?
- Ellie Sattler: If my solution was something we’ve already encountered before?
- Tim Murphy: If my solution was doable by a 10-year-old child?
- Lex Murphy: If my solution was helping someone as a mentor?
The template includes a map of Isla Nublar, 2x8 badges for the characters and their respective roles, and two canvases: one to highlight the problems and the other for the solutions (where the containers are located).
How to run Retrospective Park
The Retrospective Park workshop takes place in 6 steps:
Step 1: Presentation and setup of the workshop
The facilitator begins by presenting the workshop, including the map of Isla Nublar, and randomly assigns a character to each participant, but only reveals the role associated with the character at step 5.
"We are on the eve of the opening of the park. Cyclone Iniki hit Isla Nublar overnight. When we wake up, we launch an inspection of the enclosures. Fortunately, we have the best team to manage this event."
Step 2: Inventory of positive facts
Participants are invited to spend five minutes writing down positive events from the previous sprint.
"The Spinosaurus and Brachiosaurus enclosures are intact. List all the positive facts, i.e., everything that worked well during this sprint, and place the corresponding stickies on these two enclosures."
Step 3: Inventory of negative facts
For 5 minutes, participants are invited to list the negative facts that occurred during the previous sprint.
"The Tyrannosaurus and Dilophosaurus enclosures suffered the full force of the storm. List the negative facts, i.e., everything that went wrong during this sprint, and place the corresponding stickies on these two enclosures.”
Step 4: Selecting the most important issues
Participants have 3 votes to allocate among problems listed in Tyrannosaurus and Dilophosaurus enclosures.
The three problems with the most votes are highlighted in the "Major problem" boxes of the dedicated canvas.
"Among the problems of the Tyrannosaurus and Dilophosaurus enclosures, which are the most important to resolve?"
Step 5: Ideation within constraints
The facilitator removes the mask and informs each participant of their assigned character's role to play in finding solutions.
For 5 minutes, the participants each think about a solution for the first problem, respecting the view associated with their role, and then present their solution one after the other.
Repeat for the next two problems.
At the end of the 3 rounds, each of the 3 problems must have several solutions, from diverse and complementary angles.
"Every hero has a power! Alas, you can only solve the 3 major problems through the prism of your power!"
Step 6: Selection of the most relevant improvement actions
After selecting the problems in step 5, a voting round is conducted to prioritize the proposed solutions. Each participant is given three votes, which they can use to support one or more solutions. The solution with the highest number of votes is ultimately chosen.
At the end of the 3 voting rounds, the 3 selected solutions are positioned on the solutions canvas.
"We have a constraint: the containers can only carry one solution. We will have to choose only one solution per problem, and take it into the next sprint."
