Mad Sad Glad Retrospective
Conduct a retrospective on understanding the emotions and feelings of the team.
About the Mad Sad Glad Retrospective
What is Mad Sad Glad?
After a Sprint, it can be helpful for the team to pause and take stock of how they feel. This is crucial for maintaining morale and getting the most out of each Sprint. But sometimes, it can be hard to gauge your team’s feelings with open-ended questions like “How are you feeling?” That’s why many teams choose to employ the Mad Sad Glad retrospective.
Mad Sad Glad is a popular technique for examining your team member's emotions and encouraging them to think about how they feel. You can use a retro tool to run a session and highlight the positive feelings your team might have after a Sprint, but also to underline concerns or questions they might have going forward.
When should you run a Mad Sad Glad retrospective?
This type of retrospective can be especially valuable when there is a negative team dynamic, or if there is tension but team members haven't spoken about it yet. Participants can find it useful to use a structured framework to talk about their emotions – particularly in a fast-paced, results-focused agile environment.
How to use the Mad Sad Glad template
Miro’s virtual collaboration platform is perfect for running a Mad Sad Glad retrospective with your team. Simply select the template and invite your team to join.
The facilitator should give everyone 30-60 minutes to think about how they felt about the previous sprint. Then, allow the respondents some time to take stock of their feelings and write down the highlights on the Mad Sad Glad template. Were there parts of the Sprint that left them angry? Upset? Or satisfied? When the team is finished writing, bring everyone together to discuss. The facilitator can ask follow-up questions and take notes throughout the process.
4 tips for running a Mad Sad Glad retrospective
1. Give people space and time to reflect
Make sure the team has about 30 to 60 minutes of uninterrupted time to take stock of how they feel. Encourage people to take copious notes. Make sure the room is quiet and out of the way.
2. Make sure phones are turned off
Ask all attendees to turn off their phones so they can focus on the retrospective. If people are distracted by their phones, then they will find it harder to reflect.
3. Be inclusive
Assure everyone that there are no right or wrong answers. Remember, the goal of Mad Sad Glad is to take stock of how everyone is feeling, not to brainstorm processes or strategies.
4. Keep the focus on emotions
Encourage your team to focus on emotion, not action. People who might feel uncomfortable sharing their feelings sometimes instead try to pivot to strategy. Gently encourage them to avoid that.
3 reasons to use a Mad Sad Glad retrospective?
The Mad Sad Glad Retrospective is specifically focused on the team's emotional journey, and this is a unique approach with different benefits from a normal agile retrospective.
1. Build trust
By giving team members a space to discuss their feelings and emotions about the work they’ve done, you encourage honesty and forthrightness. Creating more honest, open, and positive teams ultimately help team members trust each other.
2. Improve morale
Almost everyone will struggle with certain things or get frustrated, and oftentimes workplaces don’t provide an avenue to talk about these frustrations. Giving employees an opportunity to talk through their difficulties will help them feel more welcomed, and ultimately boost morale.
3. Increase engagement
If team members are frustrated and don’t feel heard, they tend to check out. With a Mad Sad Glad retrospective, those team members can speak up and work towards solving their problems and building a more inclusive workspace where people can stay engaged.
You can also explore all project retrospective templates available through our collection.
Get started with this template right now.
Agile Team Events with Jira Template
Works best for:
Agile , Agile workflows
The Agile Team Events with Jira template in Miro is designed to streamline Agile workflows and enhance team collaboration. This template integrates seamlessly with Jira, allowing teams to manage their Agile events such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives directly within Miro. One significant benefit of this template is its ability to provide real-time updates. Any changes made in Miro can be synced back to Jira, ensuring that all team members are on the same page and that the project management tool reflects the latest status. This feature helps in maintaining consistency and accuracy across all Agile processes, reducing the risk of miscommunication and enhancing overall productivity.
Roadmap Planning Template
Works best for:
Roadmap, Agile
The Roadmap Planning Template in Miro is a dynamic tool designed to streamline the process of planning and tracking project milestones. This template is part of Miro's Intelligent Templates offering, which integrates AI, interactive widgets, and automation to enhance productivity. One key feature of this template is its real-time collaboration capability, allowing team members to work together seamlessly, regardless of their location. This feature ensures that everyone is on the same page, making it easier to assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress effectively.
Sailboat Retro
Works best for:
Retrospectives, Agile Methodology, Meetings
The Sailboat Retrospective template offers a metaphorical journey through past iterations and future goals, likening the retrospective process to sailing a boat. It provides elements for identifying driving forces (winds), restraining forces (anchors), and destination (goal). This template enables teams to reflect on what propels them forward, what holds them back, and where they want to go next. By promoting visualization and metaphorical thinking, the Sailboat Retrospective empowers teams to navigate challenges, set sail towards their objectives, and steer towards success effectively.
Canvas Playground Template
Works best for:
Templates
The canvas playground template is the ultimate way to explore all the features that make up Miro's Intelligent Canvas. This dynamic and interactive space is designed to help you get work done faster while engaging your team. From AI creation and Sidekicks to intelligent widgets, this template allows you to try it all and discover how these capabilities can streamline your workflow and enhance collaboration.
Backlog Refinement with Jira Template
Works best for:
Agile, Backlog Refinement
The Backlog Refinement with Jira template in Miro improves collaboration among team members. It provides a visual and interactive space for teams to review, prioritize, and clarify upcoming work items together in real time. This collaborative approach ensures alignment on priorities and details, leading to a more organized and efficient workflow. The seamless integration with Jira automatically syncs all changes, reducing the need for manual updates and keeping both platforms up-to-date.
4 L's Retrospective Template
Works best for:
Retrospectives, Decision Making
So you just completed a sprint. Teams busted their humps and emotions ran high. Now take a clear-eyed look back and grade the sprint honestly—what worked, what didn’t, and what can be improved. This approach (4Ls stand for liked, learned, lacked, and longed for) is an invaluable way to remove the emotion and look at the process critically. That’s how you can build trust, improve morale, and increase engagement—as well as make adjustments to be more productive and successful in the future.