Stop / Keep / Start - The Prompt Cards
The questions your retro was too polite to ask.
by
Alex EisenchteterFounder of I Love Cards
About
Stop / Keep / Start - The Prompt CardsThe questions your retro was too polite to ask.
Stop / Keep / Start — Prompt Cards
The questions your retro was too polite to ask.
Stop / Keep / Start is one of the simplest retrospective formats around: three columns, one team, thirty minutes.
The problem is most teams fill it with safe answers. This deck exists to fix that.
Draw a card when the conversation stalls, when everyone agrees too quickly, or when you suspect the real answer is still hiding.
Each card has a question to open the room and a Why to stop people from escaping with their first answer.
Shuffle, draw, and see what actually comes up.
Stop
The habits quietly costing you more than you think.
Stop / Keep / Start - The Prompt Cards
StopThe habits quietly costing you more than you think.
Stop
Stop is where the team confronts what is quietly slowing it down.
Not the obvious things everyone already complains about, but the habits, rituals, and processes that have become invisible because they have been around so long.
This might be the hardest column to fill.
Stop
What meeting would nobody actually miss if it disappeared from the calendar tomorrow?Why is it still in the calendar?
Stop
Stop
What habit does the team defend loudly that a new hire would quietly find ridiculous?Why does the team keep defending it instead of killing it?
Stop
Stop
What are you doing regularly that exists purely so nobody has to have an awkward conversation?Why is the awkward conversation still not happening?
Stop
Stop
What process step does everyone quietly skip anyway?Why is it still officially part of the process?
Stop
Stop
What tool or document gets updated regularly that nobody ever reads?Why are you still producing it?
Stop
Stop
What approval step slows the team down more than it protects anyone?Why does it still require approval?
Stop
Stop
What are you still doing because it made sense for a version of the team that no longer exists?Why hasn't anyone declared it expired?
Stop
Stop
What habit looks like productivity but is actually just keeping everyone busy?Why is looking busy still confused with being useful?
Stop
Stop
What does the team complain about in private but never raise in official settings?Why does it stay in the hallway and never reach the room?
Stop
Stop
What are you doing for a stakeholder or colleague that you're not sure they even want anymore?Why haven't you just asked them?
Stop
Stop
What gets added to every project just in case but never actually prevents anything?Why does the just-in-case always make the cut?
Stop
Stop
What would free up the most energy for the team if it simply stopped existing?Why hasn't that energy been a good enough reason yet?
Stop
Keep
The things worth protecting before someone decides to improve them.
Stop / Keep / Start - The Prompt Cards
KeepThe things worth protecting before someone decides to improve them.
Keep
Keep is the most underrated column in any retrospective. Teams rush through it to get to the real work.
But understanding what is actually working, and protecting it deliberately, is how good teams stay good.
Keep
What informal thing holds the team together that has never once appeared in a process document?Why hasn't anyone tried to improve it yet?
Keep
Keep
What's quietly working so well that you're slightly afraid to talk about it in case someone decides to change it?Why does good stuff always feel fragile?
Keep
Keep
What does your team do that you'd never admit to other teams is actually your secret weapon?Why is it still a secret?
Keep
Keep
What way of communicating has the team naturally developed that actually works?Why hasn't it been shared with anyone outside the team?
Keep
Keep
What team habit looks small but would cause immediate chaos if it disappeared?Why has nobody noticed how load-bearing it is?
Keep
Keep
Who on the team regularly does something invisible that makes everyone else's work easier?Why has it never been said out loud?
Keep
Keep
What decision-making pattern does the team use that consistently leads to good outcomes?Why isn't it more deliberate?
Keep
Keep
What does the team do under pressure that it should probably do all the time?Why does it take pressure to bring it out?
Keep
Keep
What relationship with a person, a team, or a process is quietly making everything smoother?Why isn't it being actively protected?
Keep
Start
The moves you keep postponing because they feel too obvious.
Stop / Keep / Start - The Prompt Cards
StartThe moves you keep postponing because they feel too obvious.
Start
Start is where good intentions go to get forgotten. This column only works if the team is honest about what has been holding it back. Not ideas for someday, but moves the team is ready to make now.
Start
What idea has been brought up in at least two retros and politely ignored both times?Why does the team keep not doing it?
Start
Start
What would you try immediately if you knew nobody was going to judge you for it?Why does it feel like someone would judge you?
Start
Start
What are you all waiting for permission to do that nobody is actually going to give you?Why are you waiting?
Start
Start
What would make the team's weekly rhythm feel less like a grind?Why hasn't that change been made already?
Start
Start
What skill exists somewhere in the team that is never actually being used?Why is it still sitting there untapped?
Start
Start
What feedback does the team need to hear from each other that has never been said?Why hasn't the right moment ever arrived?
Start
Start
What would change if the team dedicated 30 minutes a week to something that felt genuinely useful?Why don't you have that 30 minutes?
Start
Start
What would the team do differently if it trusted itself a little more?Why doesn't it trust itself more?
Start
Start
What external idea, tool, or practice has caught someone's eye but never made it to the table?Why hasn't it made it to the table?
Start
Start
What would you stop tolerating if you believed the team could handle the change?Why don't you believe it yet?
Start
Start
What would the best version of this team be doing that this version isn't?Why is the gap still there?
Start
