Start, stop, continue retrospective template

Use this framework to make adjustments to how you and youre teammates work. The start, stop, and continue method offers a way to take a critical look at “business as usual” and brainstorm solutions, allowing teams to candidly share their perspective and propose optimizations to make it better.

The start, stop, continue exercise involves identifying three key actions: what to start doing, what to stop doing, and what to continue doing. This framework serves as a roadmap for making positive changes and keeping any the practices that are working well.

Running a start, stop, continue retrospective helps teams:

• Provide honest, action-oriented feedback on a project or work process
• Foster open and constructive communication about team performance
• Empower individuals to take ownership for growth and development
• Align team efforts with organizational goals and objectives

How to run a start, stop, continue exercise

Running a Start, Stop, Continue retrospective is a straightforward process that encourages active participation and collaboration. Here are the steps you can follow to conduct a successful session using Mural:

1. Choose a current project or process to reflect on

Narrow your attention to a specific team, project, or initiative. Define the topic using the sticky note at the top of the Mural template canvas. On individual sticky notes, write your thoughts and fresh ideas in the three categories in the template: start, stop, and continue

2. Brainstorm what you should start doing

Brainstorm and review with the team:

1. What should we start doing?
2. What new situations should we adapt to?
3. What experiments should we try?
4. What ideas have not yet been considered?

3. Identify what you should stop doing

Give the team some time to reflect on the following questions about negative impacts and add sticky notes with their ideas:

1. What should we stop doing?
2. What is not working very well?
3. What is not having the desired outcome?
4. What is feeling impractical? 
5. What “roadblocks” or obstacles are in our way?

4. List out what you should continue doing

Now reflect and answer the last set of questions:

1. What should we continue doing?
2. What do we like and want to keep?
3. What do we want to keep trying or testing?
4. What is helping is make progress?

5. Group and prioritize your ideas

As ideas are shared, collaboratively group and categorize them under the appropriate sections in the Mural canvas. Encourage participants to ask questions, seek clarification, or offer additional insights.

Once all ideas are shared and organized, work together to identify the most crucial actions to start, stop, and continue. This process may involve voting, ranking, or prioritizing the ideas based on their impact and feasibility.

5. Define action items

With the identified priorities in mind, collaboratively define clear and specific actions for each category. Assign responsible team members or groups to each action item, setting deadlines and milestones as needed. This ensures that the feedback leads to tangible actions and measurable outcomes.

Expert tips to get the most out of your start, stop, & continue exercise:

• No facilitator needed: A project manager or team leader might be the key facilitator in the group, but a dedicated facilitator is not required to run this exercise. The clear format of the template ensures teams understand the key steps of the start, stop, continue exercise.
• Use the sticky note tagging feature to categorize ideas by theme or specific process. This helps you group similar feedback and ideas together when compiling your next steps and action items.‍
• Set some ground-rules: Crucial for any ideation exercise, establish a few ground rules during the brainstorming stage around ensuring team members understand the expectations and norms at play.