Like to Like

⏱ 3 min  ·  📅 2026

Like to Like is a retrospective technique in a card game format in which participants judge the sprint's events by assigning them quality ratings. By comparing these ratings, the team discovers how each member perceives the same events differently. It is carried out in the second phase of the retrospective. It lasts 30 to 40 minutes.

Description and objectives

The technique combines gathering experiences from the sprint with listening to others' perceptions of the same events. The game format makes sharing assessments more comfortable than in a direct debate, reducing the discomfort of voicing critical opinions.

How to run the activity

1. Each team member writes nine cards: three or more about things the team should stop doing; three or more about things that should be continued; and three or more about things the team should start doing. While they write, the facilitator shuffles the deck of colored "quality" cards and places it face down.
2. With the cards ready, the team gathers around the table. A "judge" is chosen. The judge turns over a "quality" card and places it face up. Everyone else looks through their cards for the one that comes closest to that quality card and places it face down. The last card to be placed is disqualified.
3. The judge shuffles the players' cards and reads them one by one. The judge chooses the card that best matches the quality card'. The author of that card wins the quality card.
4. The judge role rotates to the next person. The activity ends after six or nine rounds (or when everyone runs out of cards). The person with the most quality cards wins.
5. The activity is debriefed in four steps: What happened? How did you feel? What did you learn? What are you going to do?

Variants

For projects following Extreme Programming, it can be combined with the Industrial Logic XP cards: these cards are dealt out and participants play them instead of writing their own.

Common mistake

Getting stuck in the game and skipping the closing analysis. The game is the mechanism for gathering information, but the retrospective needs the four-step analysis to turn that information into learning and commitment. If the activity ends with tallying the score and there is no conversation about what has emerged, the team will have enjoyed a game but will not have held a retrospective.

Resources

🔧 Diseñar una retrospectiva [Designing a Retrospective]Template (in Spanish) · Scrum Manager

References

• Derby, Esther; Larsen, Diana. (2006). Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great. Pragmatic Bookshelf.

See also

Retrospective Starfish Mad Sad Glad Learning matrix Working agreements Appreciations

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