The "I like, I wish, I wonder" retro including direct access

Many Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and other retrospective facilitators are looking for the “I like, I wish, I wonder” retrospective. We have it in our blog and in our retro tool!

The “I like, I wish, I wonder” retrospective

The “I like, I wish, I wonder” retro, or translated “I like, I wish, I wonder” retrospective, is quite simple. You have the team complete three sentences that begin with the words mentioned. Indirectly, this answers 3 questions, which I will write down explicitly again here.

Looking at the last weeks, the last Sprint, or just in general: 

• I like… - what do you like or what did you like?
• I wish… - what do you wish for or what did you wish for?
• I wonder… - where are you confused, what do you wonder?

So it’s up to you whether you prefer to ask them as questions or just give the beginning of the sentences as a starting point. 

If you want, you can do this retrospective with our retrospective tool Echometer:

A few tips: Wondering what you wish for?

Okay, ignore the heading, it doesn’t really have anything to do with the idea of the retrospective 😄 But before you actually carry out this retrospective, I would like to give you a few tips. 

Firstly, feel free to search for a check-in that fits this retrospective idea. Check ins can have a very positive effect on the overall retro, as some evaluations show. We have a list of 21 clever retrospective check-ins in case you need inspiration . 

Secondly, you should make sure that you (in the questions of the “I like I wish I wonder” retrospective) keep the feedback hidden during the brainstorming phase so that the team members do not influence each other with their feedback. 

Thirdly: As a Scrum Master and psychologist, I see the frequent mistake of spending too much time on data collection (in answering and discussing the questions) - and too little time on the developing really good action items (find 7 tips here) .

The better the action items, the higher the chances that they are implemented, the higher the chances that you improve the maturity level of your team - so feel free to have a look at the linked blog post to make sure you take into account the the 6th phase of a retrospective. 

What you don’t want is the phenomenon of “retro fatigue”: The team believes that the sprint retrospective is superfluous. If you have this problem, you should take a look at my post “ 7 tips to fight retrospective fatigue ” to see.

I like, I wish, I wonder Retrospective

Conclusion - “I like, I wish, I wonder” retrospective

As mentioned, the format of the “I like I wish I wonder” retrospective is quite simple. If you need even more inspiration, you can either 3 great retrospective check-ins for whiteboards or 32 kickass retrospective ideas for beginners and professionals. for beginners and pros. 

The latter includes the Mario Kart retrospective and the Summer retro - you will like’ it, wish’ you would have found it before and wonder, why you’ve never visited the Echometer blog before 😉.