When was the last time you had a conversation with the team about work processes? With the runway running short and your back against the walls, it’s easy to skip this meeting and press forward with what feels like more valuable work. However I find retrospectives one of the most valuable tools in improving synergy between team members and thus getting more work done in the following week.
At Pollenizer, a retrospective is generally a discussion of what worked, what didn’t work and what to try next. My experiences with retrospectives are they often occur late on a Friday night with Choya Ume (Japanese plum wine). We take turns in sharing frustrations and joys that we have experienced throughout the week. Conversations can get heated so it’s important not to become defensive and provide the time and space for each team member to express themselves. In my retrospective last week, we discussed a new email that was implemented early in the week. We tried sending metrics to each team member every morning so that we could gauge the movement of both the customers and the product. The email was detailed and included over 50 metrics but the retrospective highlighted that it wasn’t helpful at all #flean. We agreed that the email didn’t hold any value. If the email wasn’t sent then it wouldn’t matter, it was just another email swimming in an overflowing inbox. As a result, we’re now focusing on a smaller subset of metrics that actually matter. With this smaller set of metrics, we will then discuss the call to action around them in our daily standup so that they are more than just a number. Only next weeks retrospective will let the team know if this was actually the right move.
Don’t let the chaos of a startup prevent improvements to the team and have team retrospectives. Apart from improving the actual process, it helps develop the unique bonds between team members that are so critical to the success of a startup.