Why we Retro
If you want to achieve a goal, say run a marathon or lose 15 pounds, or get better at drawing, you can find any number of plans on the internet that will walk you step-by-step through how to get there.
Does the plan work? Absolutely, this plan will get you to running a marathon in 16 weeks.
So if the plan is so readily available and it works, why do people fail to reach their goals? I mean if someone sets a goal to run a marathon, and they have a selection of plans that work to get there publicly available, why would anyone ever fail to hit their goals?
It’s because we are all unique, and we all have our individual circumstances in play that can make even following this plan difficult. Dr. Andy Galphin (a professor if kinesiology) uses the term “defenders” to discuss the things that block us from our goals. Everyone’s defenders are different.
So you want to run a marathon and you found a great plan. What’s keeping you from following that plan? What are your defenders?
Do you have knee pain when you run, that is cutting your runs short?
Do you travel for business a lot in the middle of the week?
Do you struggle to find a free hour for running between work and being with your family?
Do you struggle to get moving in the morning, and keep missing the time you planned to run?
Some defenders are going to be physical limitations (perhaps you are not fit enough to start with a 3 mile run), some will be based on your competing priorities (it’s hard to run regularly if you work long irregular hours), some may be blocked by your lifestyle (getting up early to run on Sundays is hard if you are out late drinking on Saturday nights), and some may be blocked by mental limitations (some people may just struggle to find the motivation to get moving).
Your list of blockers are unique to you, and if you want to succeed in your goal, you have to start modifying your plan to solve for those challenges. Maybe you need to start with a simpler plan to build up to a 3 mile run? Maybe you need to re-arrange the schedule to accommodate your work or travel? Maybe you need to find small wins that can help you build confidence and motivation?
Just because “the plan works” doesn’t mean that “the plan works for you”. Even though the general principles of fitness and exercise are constant for almost all people, the plan that allows you to reach your physical goal will be unique to you and your circumstances.
Building software is no different. It’s easy to find a large variety of plans “that work” for shipping software. You get to pick from SDLC methodologies (Scrum, SAFE, Kanban, Shape Up), a host of decision frameworks (DACI, RACI, SWOT, Pareto), and numerous goal setting frameworks (SMART, OKR, HARD, GSM).
All of these work. None of them will work for your team in your unique situations.
We retro to define our defenders. What is keeping us from reaching our goals?
Did we struggle to make progress because a bunch of bugs interrupted our plans?
Did we get stuck waiting for feedback or clarification from other people?
Was the code really hard to use or refactor?
Is it really hard to take a big project and break it down into smaller deliverables?
Do we all have different ideas of what’s actually important? Is success to vaguely defined to make us feel like we agree on what to do?
Did we spend a huge amount of time just doing “org stuff” like All Hands and performance reviews and filling out paperwork?
These are the things that really keep us from making progress, and they are things that existing frameworks and plans often have very little to say on how to overcome them.
Our challenges as a company, or as a team are unique to us, our customers, our organisations and our codebase. We need to engage in regular review of what blocks us and slows us down, and then put in the work to address those unique problems.
Retros are designed to do exactly that - to create clarity around our unique issues so that we can overcome them together.