Introduction: What You’ll Learn
After a critical incident — like a major outage, security breach, or high-priority escalation — retros take on a different tone. This simulation helps you facilitate a retro where emotions may still be raw, while guiding the team toward learning and recovery.
You’ll practice:
- Creating psychological safety after stressful events
- Balancing space for emotion with clear analysis
- Helping the team shift from blame to process insight
- Highlighting what went well during a tough time
Step-by-Step Simulation
(You sense the team is still carrying tension from the incident — today’s retro is about healing and learning. The team is just a few days out from a high-severity outage that disrupted user traffic and triggered an all-hands response. People are tired and a little on edge.)
Scene 1: Acknowledging the Moment
Facilitator: "Thanks for showing up today — I know we’re all still recovering from the incident. We’re going to keep this retro focused, open, and safe. This isn’t about blame — it’s about learning and improving together."
(Team nods. The mood is quiet but attentive.)
Facilitator: "Let’s start with a round of Start, Stop, Continue — especially through the lens of how we handled the incident. What helped? What slowed us down?"
(The board slowly fills. First comments are cautious.)
Scene 2: Surfacing the Story
Alex: "I think the initial alert didn’t go to the right Slack channel. We lost 10–15 minutes just figuring out who was on call."
Facilitator: "That’s useful — thanks. Is this a tooling issue, or a documentation gap, or something else?"
Sara: "Honestly, we updated the rotation last month, but it never got reflected in the alert config."
Leo: "We also didn’t have a clear lead once it started — a lot of people jumped in, but no one was coordinating."
Facilitator: "Appreciate the honesty. Let’s break that down — what would a clear lead role have looked like in that moment?"
(Team discusses potential checklist or IC lead role next time.)
Scene 3: Recognizing Strength and Fatigue
Facilitator: "I also saw some great things — fast comms in the incident channel, and a really solid postmortem write-up. Let’s call out what helped us stay effective under pressure."
Priya: "Alex’s graph updates really helped — made it easier to explain things to Product."
Sara: "And Leo flagged that data skew issue early. That saved us some bad decisions."
Facilitator: "Great — these are the behaviors we want to strengthen."
(Energy lifts slightly. Team starts reflecting more openly.)
Facilitator: "Priya, anything you’d add before we wrap up this part? Just want to make sure we’re hearing everyone."
Scene 4: Wrapping Up
Facilitator: "Thanks again for showing up and staying honest — that’s what helps teams grow. Here’s what we’re taking forward:"
- Review alert routing and on-call rotation process
- Define temporary incident lead role with basic checklist
- Continue fast comms and highlight standout contributions
Facilitator: "Anyone want to own or follow up on one of these?"
(Sara volunteers to audit alert config. Leo offers to draft incident lead checklist. Facilitator will share retro notes and call out the shout-outs in Slack.)
Facilitator: "Appreciate the effort this week — and let’s check back next retro to see how these changes felt. Rest up, reset, and come back stronger."
Mini Roleplay Challenges
Challenge 1: Team is quiet or emotionally distant.
- Best Response: “Totally okay — let’s take it slow. Anything feel worth capturing, even just a sentence?”
Challenge 2: Someone shows frustration or vents.
- Best Response: “Thanks for sharing that. Let’s talk about what made that hard and what could ease it next time.”
Challenge 3: People start naming names or blaming.
- Best Response: “Let’s shift to what happened in the process, not who did what.”
Optional Curveball Mode
- A stakeholder joins the retro unexpectedly
- Someone involved in the incident is absent
- A prior incident never got properly followed up
Reflection Checklist
Facilitation
- Did I create space for emotion without letting it take over?
- Did I keep the conversation focused on learning, not blame?
Team Dynamics
- Did we capture both pain points and positive moments?
- Did people feel seen, heard, and safe?
Action + Recovery
- Did we agree on specific improvements?
- Did we recognize strong contributions?
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Skipping the retro due to burnout
- Letting the discussion stay vague or vent-heavy
- Jumping straight to fixes without emotional processing
- Failing to follow up on the lessons next sprint