Team Retrospective Template for Trades & Construction

# Team Retrospective Template - Trades & Construction

## Purpose
Run at the end of every project sprint or monthly to build a culture of learning and turn insights into tangible improvements.

## When to Use
A structured retrospective template with sections for what went well, what could improve, action items, and appreciation to foster continuous improvement.

## Instructions
1. Review the template below and familiarise yourself with the structure
2. Replace all [bracketed placeholders] with your trades & construction business details
3. Customise the tone and formatting to match your brand
4. Save in your preferred tool (Notion or Slack)

---

# Team Retrospective

**Team:** [Team Name]
**Sprint/Period:** [Sprint Name or Date Range]
**Facilitator:** [Name]
**Date:** [Date]
**Attendees:** [List of names]

---

## Ground Rules

Before we start, a reminder of our retro ground rules:
- Focus on processes and systems, not individuals
- Be specific with examples rather than general complaints
- Every concern raised should come with a suggested improvement
- What is said in the retro stays in the retro (unless it is an agreed action item)

---

## What Went Well

*What should we keep doing? What worked better than expected?*

- [Item 1, e.g. "Daily standups kept everyone aligned and caught the API issue early"]
- [Item 2, e.g. "Client communication was proactive, which built trust"]
- [Item 3, e.g. "New code review process reduced bugs in production by approximately 30%"]
- [Item 4]
- [Item 5]

---

## What Could Be Improved

*What did not work as well as it should have? Where did we experience friction?*

- [Item 1, e.g. "Scope changes mid-sprint caused rework and delayed delivery by 3 days"]
- [Item 2, e.g. "Testing was left to the last two days, creating pressure"]
- [Item 3, e.g. "Documentation was not updated as work progressed"]
- [Item 4]
- [Item 5]

---

## Questions and Puzzles

*What are we still unsure about? What do we need more information on?*

- [Item 1, e.g. "Are we using the right tool for task tracking, or should we evaluate alternatives?"]
- [Item 2, e.g. "How do other teams handle mid-sprint scope changes?"]

---

## Appreciation

*Take a moment to recognise individual or team contributions.*

- [Name] - [Specific recognition, e.g. "Stayed back to resolve the integration issue and communicated progress clearly throughout"]
- [Name] - [Specific recognition, e.g. "Onboarded the new team member brilliantly while maintaining their own workload"]
- [Name] - [Specific recognition]

---

## Action Items

*Concrete improvements we commit to implementing. Each must have an owner and a deadline.*

| Action | Owner | Deadline | Priority |
|--------|-------|----------|----------|
| [Action 1, e.g. "Introduce a scope change request process"] | [Name] | [Date] | High |
| [Action 2, e.g. "Move testing to earlier in the sprint cycle"] | [Name] | [Date] | High |
| [Action 3, e.g. "Schedule documentation reviews as part of task completion"] | [Name] | [Date] | Medium |

---

## Review of Previous Actions

| Previous Action | Owner | Status |
|----------------|-------|--------|
| [Action from last retro] | [Name] | [Done / In Progress / Not Started] |
| [Action from last retro] | [Name] | [Done / In Progress / Not Started] |

---

**Overall team sentiment:** [Great / Good / Okay / Needs Attention]

**Next retrospective:** [Date]

---

**Complexity:** simple | **Setup time:** 10 minutes | **Tools:** Notion, Slack, Asana

Note: This template has been tailored for trades & construction businesses in Australia. Adjust terminology and compliance references to match your specific context.