Speed Car Retrospective Template
Also known as: Speed Car & Abyss · Speed Car Abyss · Race Car retrospective
Find out what's under the hood: what makes the team fast, what drags it down and where the road ends.
- ⏱ 45–60 min
- 👥 3–10 people
- 🧩 3 columns
- Free · no sign-up
Engine
What pushed us forward?
What powered the team forward: practices, people, tools and decisions that gave you speed.
Parachute
What slowed us down?
What slowed the team down: drag, waiting, rework, interruptions.
Abyss
What risks lie ahead?
Risks and dangers ahead that could stop the team completely if ignored.
What is the Speed Car Retrospective?
Speed Car is a visual retrospective built around a race car. The engine represents what drives the team forward, and the parachute represents what holds it back. In the popular Speed Car & Abyss version, the car is heading towards a cliff, and the team also names the risks that could send it over the edge.
It is a close cousin of the Speedboat game from Luke Hohmann's Innovation Games, where anchors slow a boat down, and of the Sailboat retrospective. The car metaphor puts the focus on speed and flow, which makes it a natural fit for teams that feel they are working hard but not going fast.
The Abyss column turns the session from a pure look back into a short risk review. That makes the format useful in the middle of a project or before a deadline, when the team needs to talk about both how it works and what might go wrong next.
When to use Speed Car (and when not to)
✅ Use it when
- ▸ When the team feels slow and wants to understand where the time goes.
- ▸ Mid-project or a few sprints before a deadline, to combine a retro with a risk check.
- ▸ When you want a visual, slightly playful format without losing focus.
- ▸ After a sprint with lots of waiting, handoffs or blocked tickets.
- ▸ As a change of pace after several sprints of Start Stop Continue.
⚠️ Avoid it when
- ▸ After a sprint dominated by conflict or low morale. The car is about speed, not feelings; try Mad Sad Glad.
- ▸ When there is real pressure to 'go faster' from management. The framing can make people feel judged on velocity.
- ▸ At the very start of a project, when there is no speed to analyse yet (use Hopes and Concerns).
How to run a Speed Car Retrospective step by step
Total time: about 45 minutes for a team of 3–10 people. Adjust the timeboxes to the size of your team and sprint.
- 1
Draw the scene · 3 min
Describe the race car, the engine pushing it, the parachute dragging it and the abyss at the end of the road. Clarify the time period: the last sprint, or the project so far.
- 2
Silent writing · 8 min
Everyone writes in the three columns. Ask for at least one card per column, and especially at least one Abyss card each, since risks are easy to forget.
- 3
Engine first · 6 min
Read the Engine cards. Group them and make sure the team knows what to protect. Thank anyone named on a card.
- 4
Parachute and grouping · 8 min
Read the Parachute cards and cluster them: waiting, rework, interruptions, unclear requirements. Look for parachutes that are the flip side of an engine.
- 5
Abyss and voting · 8 min
Read the risks and rate them quickly by likelihood and impact (high/low). Then give everyone three votes across Parachute and Abyss.
- 6
Actions · 12 min
For the top parachute: what's one way to cut it? For the top risk: how will we notice early, and who watches it? Leave with two or three owned actions.
Speed Car questions and prompts for each column
Read a couple of these aloud if the board stays empty after the first minutes of writing.
Engine
- • What helped us deliver faster than expected?
- • Which habit would you never give up?
- • What gave you energy this sprint?
- • Which tool or shortcut saved real time?
Parachute
- • Where did work sit waiting the longest?
- • What did we have to redo?
- • Which interruption cost you the most focus?
- • What process felt heavier than it needed to be?
Abyss
- • What could make us miss the next milestone?
- • Which technical debt is getting close to the edge?
- • Who or what is a single point of failure?
- • What external change could hit us next month?
Speed Car retrospective example
A web team four weeks before a big launch, after a sprint where several stories stayed in review for days. Here is what their board looked like at the end of the writing phase.
Engine
- Feature flags let us merge small and often
- Daily 15-min design sync
- New component library saves hours per page
Parachute
- PRs waited 2+ days for review
- QA environment shared with two other teams
- Requirements changed after development started
Abyss
- Payment provider migration lands the same week as launch
- Only Sam can deploy the CDN config
- Load testing hasn't been done yet
Action items they agreed on
- ☑️ Review rotation: one person per day owns open PRs (owner: team, start Monday)
- ☑️ Pair Sam with someone on the CDN deploy and write it down (owners: Sam + Leo)
- ☑️ Run a load test two weeks before launch (owner: Dana)
Common mistakes and facilitation tips
Ignoring the engine
If the discussion only covers parachutes, the team may drop the things that make it fast while fixing the slow parts. Name what to protect first.
An abyss full of doom
Risks can snowball into anxiety. Rate them quickly, act on one or two and park the rest in a risk list you check at each retro.
Blaming people for being slow
Parachutes are about the system: queues, handoffs, unclear priorities. Rephrase any card that points at a person.
Using velocity as the score
The metaphor is about flow, not story points. Talk about waiting time and rework, not about who delivered the most.
Variations and related templates
- Speed Car (two columns): The original version with only Engine and Parachute, for a shorter retro.
- Sailboat retrospective template: Wind, anchors, rocks and an island: the same idea with a goal on the horizon.
- Speedboat: Luke Hohmann's Innovation Games exercise, where anchors slow the boat down.
- Hopes and Concerns retrospective template: A forward-looking format to spend more time on risks.
Speed Car retrospective FAQ
What is a Speed Car retrospective?
It is a visual retrospective in which the team imagines itself as a race car. The engine is what speeds it up, and the parachute is what slows it down. The Speed Car & Abyss version adds risks ahead that could stop the team.
What is the Abyss in the Speed Car retrospective?
The Abyss is the cliff at the end of the road. It stands for risks and dangers that could derail the team or the project if nobody acts on them.
What is the difference between Speed Car and Sailboat?
Both are visual metaphors for forces that help and hinder the team. Sailboat adds an island (the goal) and rocks (risks); Speed Car focuses on speed with an engine, a parachute and, optionally, an abyss.
How long does a Speed Car retrospective take?
About 45 to 60 minutes with the Abyss column, or 30 to 40 minutes with only Engine and Parachute.
Can I run a Speed Car retrospective online for free?
Yes. Click 'Use this template' to open a Giftro board with the Engine, Parachute and Abyss columns. Share the link; nobody needs an account.
Run your Speed Car retro now
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Related retrospective templates
Sailboat retrospective template
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Hopes and Concerns retrospective template
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Start Stop Continue retrospective template
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