How To Run a Retro Using Miro

If you and your team already use Miro, you can add weekly retrospective ceremonies to the list of things you can get done on the platform. I have been a longtime user of Postfacto and loved its simplicity. However, installing and hosting is non-trivial. Other solutions, like Funretro, Trello, and others have left me wanting to go back to Postfacto. I was able to recreate what I loved most in Miro, and gain a few benefits as well.

Setting up the template

1. Create a dedicated board for your team retros.
2. Using the templates tool, add a Kanban board.
3. Delete any extra swim lanes.
4. Create and title the columns for your retro in the kanban board. I use the following: “I’m glad that…” “I’m surprised that…” “I’m wondering…” “I’m sad that…” and “action items.”
5. Using the frames tool, put a frame around your kanban board, leaving plenty of extra space at the bottom for cards to be added.
6. Title the frame Double_click_and_enter_the_date (unlike dashes, underscores allow a double-click to select the entire text string).
7. At this point, it should look like this:

Saving the retro template

You can save this board as a template (available with the templates tool) with the following steps:

1. Select the entire frame and contents.
2. On the hover menu, click the three dots for “more.”
3. Select “Save as template.”
4. Name it “Retro Template” or whatever works for you and make it available to everyone who will need it.
5. Now you can use the templates tool to add new retros to the board.

Using the Retro Template

• Whether you created a template as above, or have a template on your board, add a copy of the retro to the board and title it with your retro date.
• Lock the board and the frame (don’t worry, it won’t prevent people from adding cards).
• Create a new frame for each retro day … the old ones provide an archive, and you can delete as needed.
• You can link to each frame directly when you right-click the frame and grab the URL … you might include that specific link in the invite.

Running the retro in Miro:

1. After everyone is in the Miro board, take a moment to give a spiel about what retro is for, and to point out the retrospective prime directive.
2. Using the timer tool on the bottom menu, set a timer and have everyone add cards to the Kanban board (5 minutes is a good start).
3. Once the timer goes off, clean up any blank cards (people will almost always create extra blank cards in the process).
4. You can either give people some time now to read over cards and de-dupe, or give them time during the voting session.
5. Using the voting too on the bottom menu, set up a voting session…
6. Change the “voting area” to just the day’s retro frame.
7. Uncheck any “Vote for” items that are not cards.
8. Give people enough time to read the cards and vote.
9. Give people enough votes to choose many but not all of the cards (give fewer votes if there are many cards and not a lot of time).
10. When time is up, use the voting results to set the order of the cards.
11. You can use the voting results tool to move from card to card, and use the timer to focus conversation for each topic.
12. I recommend you can change the color of the card from blue to gray once it’s covered so that you have a visual sense of the overall board and what was completed.
13. Add action items as needed or at the end.

That’s it! Happy retros!