What is a Start, Stop, Continue retrospective?

Start, Stop, Continue is a retrospective format where the team names things to start doing, things to stop doing, and things that are working and should continue. It is fast, concrete, and action-oriented, which is why it is one of the most widely used retro formats for sprint teams.

How do you run a sprint retrospective?

Gather the team in a safe, blameless space, collect input across the columns, group similar cards, discuss the themes, and commit to a small number of action items with owners. The goal is one or two improvements the team will actually make, not a long list that gets forgotten by the next sprint.

Why add action items to a retro?

Without action items, a retrospective is just venting. The action items column turns the discussion into commitments. Keep it short, assign an owner to each, and review them at the start of the next retro so the team sees that retros lead to real change.

Retrospective Board

Run a clean Start, Stop, Continue retro in your browser. Add cards to each column, capture the action items the team commits to, then export to CSV or print. Everything saves in your browser. No signup.

How to run a Start, Stop, Continue retrospective

The Start, Stop, Continue format keeps a retro fast and action-oriented. Start collects the things the team should begin doing, Stop names what is getting in the way, and Continue protects what is already working so it does not quietly disappear. The fourth column, Action Items, is where the discussion becomes commitment, because a retro without actions is just a vent session.

Run it in a blameless spirit. Collect cards, group the duplicates, talk through the themes, and then pick a small number of action items with a clear owner on each. One or two improvements the team genuinely makes beats a long list nobody touches. Open the next retro by reviewing those actions, so the team learns that retros actually change how they work.

Common mistakes to avoid

No action items. If nothing changes, people stop bringing honest input.
Too many actions. Pick the few that matter and finish them before adding more.
Skipping Continue. Naming what works keeps a team from accidentally dropping good habits under pressure.
Letting it become blame. Focus on the system and the process, not on individuals.

Feed the action items straight into a RAID log so they get tracked to closure.

Built by Arsenii Samoilov, a Senior Technical Program Manager with 19+ years at Intuit, Atlassian, Adobe, Salesforce, Roku, and Apple. If your team needs help standing up program governance, get in touch.

Read the Insights →