Retrospective meeting: what it is and what it means

A retrospective meeting is a type of meeting designed to review a period or a project that has ended, in order to improve the team's processes. It requires psychological safety, so that critical observations can be made without negative effects on working relationships, an explicit three-part structure — what went well / what didn't work / what we change — and actions with a named owner for every improvement point. The expected output is a list of improvement actions with an owner: without this output the retrospective remains a reflective exercise with no operational effect.

Distinctive: review a period or a project
Distinctive: psychological safety
Essential: list of improvement actions with an owner
Essential: what went well / what didn't work / what we change
Constant: actions with a named owner

Glossary

Retrospective meeting

A type of meeting designed to review a period or a project in order to improve processes, structured as what went well / what didn't work / what we change.