Ever feel you’re too close to a project to see what’s working, what’s not working, and where to take your next steps?
Sometimes the best approach is to take a step back to look at the big picture — or even better — run a retrospective exercise. It happens to every team at some point. But this “can’t see the wood for the trees” paradox is easily solved, with a Design Thinking activity called Rose, Bud, Thorn.
What is the Rose, Bud, Thorn retrospective
The Rose, Bud, Thorn retrospective is a simple, yet effective sprint retrospective technique designed to help identify the positive outcomes (Rose), the opportunities (Bud), and the challenges (Thorn) from your last sprint.
The purpose of Rose, Bud, Thorn is to
- Acknowledge strengths and weaknesses — putting measures in place to do more of what’s going well, and fix what needs fixing.
- Inspire ideation and debate within teams — discussing Buds can encourage new, innovative ideas to come to the fore.
- Gaining insight from all members of the team — even those who would usually shy away from giving their input.
Rose
These are the ideas, properties, or processes that are working (or worked) well. While they may not be perfect, these are the things that you want to keep doing, celebrate, shine a positive light on.
- What is the highlight of your day/week/month/quarter?
- How have you been successful?
- What are you most proud of?
Describe the efforts that have worked really well for you and your team, and use comments to briefly cover why you think they were successful. These ideas don’t have to be perfect, but they work well enough to not be changed.
Bud
This is an area that may or may not be working perfectly, but offers an opportunity for growth or improvement.
- What are some of the opportunities that energize you?
- What possibilities need growth and nurturing?
- What is working now, but could be working better in the future?
This is an area for optimistic ideation. Try not to focus on how things are not working, but how you can make things work better. If you’re in the middle of an ongoing process, identifying possible improvements early can save you significant time later.
Thorn
This is an idea, property, or process that is not working. It may need to be heavily reworked or removed entirely.
- What causes the most stress?
- What impeded your efforts?
- Did you experience pain points in the process?
- What did you wish would have turned out better?
Thorns can be excellent opportunities to identify new buds or areas for improvement. Determine what is wrong with your process and find a way to fix it.
When it comes to self-reflection, asking yourself active questions rather than passive questions changes the focus of your answers — and empowers you to make changes you wouldn’t otherwise consider!
