Remote Retrospective Patterns

© 2013 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
Tarang Patel & Eric Rapin | Agile Coaches/Trainers
Remote Retrospective Patterns
twitter: @nevasha & @ebrapin

Where…
2

3

In-person retrospectives…

Using tools like these…

But Remote Meetings Suck!

Remote communication creates challenges…
7
Medium
Tone of
Voice
Interactio
n
Body
Language
Focus
Face-to-
Face
Video
Conferencin
g
Phone
IM/Text
Email
Voicemail

10 common meeting dysfunctions
1. Meetings are repetitive, they are all the same
2. The same people do all the talking
3. Subjects are beaten to death, again and again
4. We come to decisions just to get out of the meeting
5. I don’t have time to code because I am in too many meetings
6. We have too many people in our meetings
7. We have too few people in our meetings
8. With constant stream of meetings, we are treated like machinery not
people
9. Our demos and reviews never really bring about anything new
10. All the decisions were made outside the meeting anyway; we just have
the meeting to be told what we are doing and to agree
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I don’t like Mondays - http://www.infoq.com/presentations/tabaka-dont-like-mondays by Jean Tabaka

At least two reasons they suck…
 Lacking Communication
 Bandwidth
 Turn Taking
 Engagement
 Lacking Collaboration
 Shared Mental Models
 Problem Solving

Here are a few common patterns…
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A group in each location…
Multiple Sites Video-Conferenced

Remote only in part…
Mostly in person, one or two remote

All remote…
High Fidelity Collaboration Tools

Multiple Sites Video-Conferenced
• Choose a facilitator for each site
• Facilitators plan the meeting together
• Co-facilitate during meeting

Mostly in person, one or two remote
Uh, hello? Can
I get a word in
here?
• Level the Communication Playing Field
• Use a “Remote Ambassador”

Use a Remote Ambassador
“Bob has an idea about that,
go ahead Bob…”
“Thanks Linda. What if we
tried…”

All Remote in Collaboration Tool
• Plan For Active Engagement
• Use Chat for Unstructured Discussion
• If > ~7 attendees, use breakouts

A few things to consider…
• What’s the highest bandwidth
communication available to all
attendees?
• Video Conference
• Phone Conference
• Group Chat

Consider…
• What facilitation tools in use to
make sure every voice is heard?
• Pre-meeting surveys
• Polls
• Shared whiteboards
• Collaborative editing tools

Consider…
• How can you make sure people stay
engaged and are not drifting into
email/social media/etc.?
• Check-ins
• Small Group Breakouts
• Activities
• Remember the 8 Minute Rule

So what…
 Can remote meetings be as effective as
in person meetings?
Be agile – try something, inspect and adapt!

What Has Worked For You?

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AGILE @ ADOBE PRODUCTIONS, #42
I believe that the voices of fear and distrust, both from within and without, can only be
dispelled by trusting the voice that comes from the team. Be still and listen to it as you stand
to gain more than you'll lose. If it speaks with vision and outcomes for the team, group of
teams, it just might be the voice of Creativity — or a reasonable facsimile or a tweet. If
however, it snarls with fear of the unknown, fear of trying to work on chunked down work, fear
of the dreaded micro-manager, customer or time boxing with incremental delivery, fear of
losing the illusion of the perfect thing that you have or of not getting what you want, then it
might be voice of Panic — or a reasonable facsimile.
24

Remote Retrospective Patterns

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Editor's Notes