10 Fun Retro Ideas to Boost Engagement

Name: Clear Retro
Author: Clear Retro

If your team groans when the calendar reminder pops up for the retrospective, you have a problem.

Retrospectives should be the highlight of the sprint. It's the one time the team gets to stop working and start thinking.

Here are 10 creative themes to inject some energy back into your meetings.

1. The Mario Kart Retro

Theme: Racing to the finish line.

🍄 Mushrooms (Boosts): What sped us up?
🍌 Banana Peels (Slips): What caused us to slip up?
🐢 Blue Shells (Disasters): What hit us out of nowhere?
⭐ Stars (Invincibility): Who was our MVP?

2. The Zombie Apocalypse

Theme: Survival.

🧟 Zombies: What problems keep coming back from the dead?
🏠 Safe House: What protected us? (Tools, processes)
💊 Supplies: What do we need more of?

3. The Three Little Pigs

Theme: Building quality.

🌾 House of Straw: What is fragile and might break?
🪵 House of Sticks: What is solid but needs work?
🧱 House of Bricks: What is rock solid?

4. The Oscar Awards

Theme: Celebration.

🏆 Best Picture: The best feature we shipped.
🎬 Best Director: Who led the team well?
✂️ Best Editing: What did we cut from scope (and was it a good idea)?

5. The Hot Air Balloon

Theme: Rising above.

🔥 Hot Air: What lifts us up?
sandbags: What pulls us down?
⛈️ Storm Clouds: What is ahead?

6. The Marie Kondo

Theme: Cleaning up.

✨ Sparks Joy: Keep doing this.
🗑️ Thank You, Next: Stop doing this.
📦 Storage: Put this idea in the backlog for later.

7. The Spotify Playlist

Theme: Music.

🔁 Repeat: Songs (tasks) we play over and over.
⏭️ Skip: Things we avoided.
🆕 New Release: What did we learn?

8. The Detective

Theme: Solving a mystery.

🔍 Clues: Signs that something was wrong.
🕵️ Suspects: Root causes.
🚓 Case Closed: Problems we solved.

9. The Garden

Theme: Growth.

🌱 Seeds: Ideas to plant.
🐛 Pests: Bugs and issues.
🌻 Flowers: Beautiful results.

10. The Pirate Ship

Theme: Adventure.

🗺️ Treasure: The goal.
💣 Cannons: Our strengths.
🦜 Parrot: Communication issues (repeating ourselves).

Conclusion

Changing the frame changes the conversation. By using a metaphor like "Zombies" or "Mario Kart", you give people permission to be playful, which often unlocks the most creative solutions.

Want to customize your board? Clear Retro allows you to rename columns to anything you want, so you can run any of these themes in seconds.

10 Fun Retro Ideas to Boost Engagement (2025 Edition)