Iterate Retrospective Agent Skill

Facilitates and documents a team retrospective capturing what went well, what to improve, and action items. Use at the end of a sprint, project, or milestone to reflect and improve team practices. To bank individual learnings into organizational memory afterward, use iterate-lessons-log.

6k tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

516

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/product-on-purpose/pm-skills --skill iterate-retrospective

The instruction itself

7 sections, as written by the author

Retrospective

A retrospective is a structured reflection that helps teams learn from their experiences and continuously improve. By regularly examining what went well, what didn't, and what to change, teams build a culture of learning and adaptation. The value isn't just in the discussion.it's in the documented actions and follow-through.

When to Use

At the end of every sprint (for agile teams)
After completing a significant project or milestone
Following a major incident or outage
When team dynamics feel off and need addressing
At regular intervals (monthly, quarterly) even without specific triggers
When onboarding new team members to establish improvement culture

When NOT to Use

You want one durable learning banked for the organization -> use iterate-lessons-log; the retro is the ceremony, the log entry outlives it
You are scoring an OKR cycle at close -> use measure-okr-grader
The reflection must end in a pivot-or-persevere call -> use iterate-pivot-decision
You need a recap of a general (non-retro) meeting -> use foundation-meeting-recap

Instructions

When asked to facilitate or document a retrospective, follow these steps:

Set the Context

Define what period or project this retrospective covers, who attended, and any significant events that occurred. This frames the discussion and helps future readers understand the context.

Choose a Format

Select a retrospective format that fits the team's needs. Common options include:

Start/Stop/Continue: Simple and direct
4Ls: Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for
Mad/Sad/Glad: Emotion-focused
Sailboat: Visual metaphor (wind=helps, anchor=holds back)

Gather Input

Collect observations from all team members. Ensure everyone contributes.quiet voices often have important insights. Group similar items to identify themes.

Discuss and Prioritize

Don't try to address everything. Focus the discussion on the most impactful items. Vote or discuss to identify the top 2-3 issues to address.

Define Action Items

Convert insights into specific, assignable actions. Every action needs an owner and a due date. Avoid vague improvements like "communicate better."

Review Previous Actions

Check the status of action items from the last retrospective. Celebrate completions and discuss blockers for incomplete items. This builds accountability.

Document for Future Reference

Capture the key points so they're available for future team members and for tracking patterns over time.

Output Format

Use the template in references/TEMPLATE.md to structure the output. A complete retrospective fills every template section: Overview; Previous Retrospective Review; What Went Well; What to Improve; Discussion Notes; Action Items; Parking Lot; Metrics and Trends; Facilitator Notes; and Next Retrospective.

Quality Checklist

Before finalizing, verify:

[ ] All attendees had opportunity to contribute
[ ] Both positives and improvements are captured
[ ] Action items have owners and due dates
[ ] Previous retrospective actions are reviewed
[ ] A reader who missed the retro can tell what was decided and who owns each action from this document alone

Examples

See references/EXAMPLE.md for a completed example.

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3k tokens

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take product-on-purpose/iterate-retrospective from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

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