Free Sprint Retrospective Ideas and Themes

Template highlights

• 25 ready-to-use retro ideas, grouped into 6 themes - Celebrate wins, spot friction, improve collaboration, check team health, look ahead, and re-energise quiet rooms. Each prompt explains when it helps, what to ask, and how to turn it into a small next step.
• A reusable retro template - One page to capture notes, pick priorities, and record owners and dates. So your team captures insights and turns them into small, owned improvements you can actually track.
• Tips for different teams - Short guidance to adjust prompts based on your team size. How to tweak retro questions for different team maturities and environments (new teams through to experienced groups).
• Remote and hybrid tips - Simple ways to include every voice on calls, keep things moving, and make decisions quick when you’re distributed.
• Free Jira setup (optional) - How to run the toolkit alongside your work items and backlogs in Jira for free with Review by Easy Agile, so notes and action items sit right next to your work.

Benefits of the retro ideas toolkit

• Simple to read. Plain language, short sections, no jargon.
• Useful right away. Prompts you can copy into your next retro.
• Keeps you accountable. The template helps you record owners and dates so work gets done.
• Fits your tools. Optional Jira guidance so nothing is lost in docs.

A quick peek at the retro themes

Celebrate wins

Spot the small things that worked (not just big releases). You’ll get prompts that help you name the win, why it mattered, and how to repeat it next sprint. This builds momentum and gives the team real examples to copy.

Fix friction

Find where work slows or gets stuck - handoffs, reviews, unclear tickets, noisy channels. The toolkit includes questions to uncover one specific pain point and choose a small, practical improvement you can own.‍

Work better together

Make expectations and responsibilities clear so fewer things fall through the cracks. You’ll get prompts that surface “who does what,” tidy up handoffs, and agree simple rules the team actually follows.‍

Team health

Check how the team is feeling and functioning - focus, energy, psychological safety, and load. The prompts help you notice early signals and talk about them in a safe, straight way.‍

Look ahead

Call out risks before they bite: capacity changes, dependencies, “green but feels amber” work. You’ll get questions that make risk concrete and guide you to a simple guardrail for the next sprint.‍

When the room is quiet

Warm-ups that get people talking without turning the retro into a game. These are short, low-pressure starters designed for remote calls and mixed-confidence teams.

Who gets value from this ebook

• Scrum Masters, Delivery Leads, and team leads who want retrospective examples they can use today.
• Software teams that need a free retrospective template that leads to real action.
• Remote or hybrid teams looking for light sprint retrospective ideas that include everyone.

Works great with Jira and Review by Easy Agile

Prefer to run your retrospectives in Jira?

The toolkit also shows you how to use Review by Easy Agile as your free online Jira retro board with templates, anonymous posting, reactions, mood surveys, and action capture - all in Jira context.