Helped Hindered Hypothesis
It is one of the few retrospective techniques whose focus is not the sprint but the retrospective itself. It allows the facilitator to continuously improve the design of the sessions based on direct feedback from the team.
Description and Purpose
The facilitator gathers comments from team members to:
- Discover what helped them work and learn together during the session.
- Identify what hindered the group's thinking or learning.
- Obtain specific ideas about what to change in future retrospectives.
How to run the activity
- Prepare three separate flip charts or visual supports, one for each dimension:
- Helped: aspects of this retrospective that were useful in fostering collective learning.
- Hindered: obstacles or elements that made it harder for the team to think or learn.
- Hypothesis: changes that could improve the next retrospective.
- Team members write their comments on sticky notes, add their initials, and place them on the corresponding flip chart.
- The facilitator closes the activity by thanking the team for the feedback and may mention whether they will need clarification on any note later.
When to use it
- As a regular retrospective closing activity to build up feedback on the process over time.
- Especially useful when the facilitator is experimenting with new techniques and wants to know how the team perceived them.
- After particularly long or emotionally charged retrospectives, to give the team the chance to express how they felt about the process.
Common mistake
Receiving feedback without acting on it. Helped Hindered Hypothesis generates information about the quality of retrospectives, but its value disappears if the facilitator does not incorporate any of the suggested changes into subsequent sessions. There is no need to act on everything: it is enough for the team to see that their suggestions have been considered.
Resources
🔧 Diseñar una retrospectiva [Designing a retrospective, in Spanish]Template · Scrum Manager
References
- Derby, Esther; Larsen, Diana. (2006). Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great. Pragmatic Bookshelf.
See also
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