Starfish Retrospective

Five dimensions of team behavior — the most actionable retro format.

What is it?

The Starfish retrospective, created by Patrick Kua, uses five columns to give agile and scrum teams a more nuanced action vocabulary than the classic three-column format. Its five categories — Keep Doing, Start Doing, Stop Doing, More Of, and Less Of — allow teams to make fine-grained distinctions between practices worth keeping versus amplifying, and things to stop versus simply reduce. It's particularly popular in mature scrum teams that want precise, measurable commitments from their retrospectives.

Keep Doing

Practices working well that the team should maintain at current levels.

Start Doing

New ideas and practices the team wants to introduce in the next sprint.

Stop Doing

Things that are clearly not working and should be eliminated.

More Of

Good existing practices the team should do with higher frequency or intensity.

Less Of

Things that have value but are taking too much time or attention.

When to use it

▸Teams that have outgrown Start/Stop/Continue and want more precision
▸When distinguishing between 'amplify' and 'keep as-is' matters for your process
▸Mature agile teams doing quarterly or mid-year retrospectives
▸When you want highly specific, measurable action items

Facilitation tips

1Explain the difference between 'Keep' and 'More Of' before the writing phase to avoid confusion.
2The 'More Of' and 'Less Of' columns are the most valuable — encourage entries there specifically.
3Use dot-voting on 'Start Doing' items to pick the one new practice to actually implement.
4Limit 'Stop Doing' commitments to 1–2 items — stopping behaviors requires team-wide consensus.

🎬 Use this template

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