Rose, Bud, Thorn Retrospective Template
Identify the positive outcomes and the challenges ahead with the simple yet effective Rose, Bud, Thorn Retrospective Template. Apply this popular design thinking retro and improve your processes.
About the Rose, Bud, Thorn Retrospective Template
H&R Block created this template to better understand internal processes, what’s working, and areas for improvement. Like any other retro, the Rose, Bud Thorn Retrospective can be used at any point of your project, so you and your team can iterate, move faster, and innovate to reach your goals.
What’s the Rose, Bud, Thorn Retrospective Template?
The Rose, Bud, Thorn Retrospective is a great exercise for getting feedback, finding opportunities, and knowing for sure what’s working within your project or organization.
This technique is derived from design thinking methodologies, and the template frame is divided into three main areas: Rose (success), Thorn (challenges) and Bud (potential).
Each of these areas helps you identify all aspects of your problem, project, or topic you want to approach with the rose, bud, thorn exercise.
Benefits of the Rose, Bud, Thorn Retrospective Template
Retrospectives are a great tool to help teams identify what’s working and what needs improvement in any project, sprint, or overall process. The Rose, Bud, Thorn Retrospective Template, in particular, is very simple but effective, designed to help you easily identify the positive aspects of your project, the challenges, and future opportunities.
This approach to retros comes from design thinking methodology, which allows teams to iterate faster and identify challenges quicker. The rose, bud, thorn exercise brings agility to teams, allowing people to clearly see their projects’ positive and most challenging aspects.
How to use Rose, Bud, Thorn Retrospective Template
This template helps you understand how to facilitate a retrospective. Follow the steps below when running this exercise:
Select the ready-made Rose, Bud, Thorn Retrospective Template and add it to your board.
Identify the focus area. It can be a problem, a project, or a process.
Explain what each area of the template means.
Rose: positive outcomes and what’s working well.
Thorn: challenges and difficulties.
Bud: potential and future opportunities.
4. Set the timer and give people time to fill in each area.
5. Cluster the stickies by similar topics, identify patterns, and give names to the clusters.
6. Gather learnings and, if needed, reach out to people privately.
Pro tips:
Set time for this retro depending on the number of participants. It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.
Create a safe space for people to feel comfortable and transparent about their feelings and opinions. Avoid calling out on individuals, and schedule 1:1 sessions later if needed.
Share the board so people can refer back to it.
Schedule a follow-up session to check if people implemented changes and if progress was made.
What is Rose Bud Thorn in design thinking?
Rose, bud, thorn is one of the many design thinking exercises. Design Thinking methodology is based on testing assumptions and prototypes, and the rose, bud, thorn retro helps people to quickly find out what’s working and what should be reconsidered.
What is the purpose of Rose Bud Thorn?
The purpose of the rose, bud, thorn retro is to mainly assess the challenges of any given project, problem, or process. This retrospective is designed to find out not only the weaknesses but also the strengths of a project so that people can leave this retrospective feeling inspired and with insights.
Get started with this template right now.
Learning Loop Retro Template
Works best for:
Retros, Agile
The Learning Loop Retro template is a powerful tool designed to help teams reflect on their projects by recognizing successes and identifying areas for improvement. This template is part of Miro's Intelligent templates, which streamline workflows and keep teams engaged by integrating AI, interactive tools, and seamless integrations. One key benefit of the Learning Loop Retro template is its ability to drive continuous improvement. By regularly reflecting on their work and identifying areas for enhancement, teams can consistently elevate their performance and achieve better outcomes.
Christmas Retrospective
Works best for:
Agile Methodology, Meetings, Retrospectives
The Christmas Retrospective template offers a festive and celebratory approach to retrospectives, incorporating the holiday spirit into the session. It provides elements for reflecting on achievements, sharing gratitude, and setting intentions for the future. This template fosters a sense of warmth, togetherness, and appreciation among team members, encouraging reflection on both professional and personal growth. By infusing the retrospective with the joy of the holiday season, the Christmas Retrospective empowers teams to strengthen relationships, cultivate positivity, and drive continuous improvement effectively.
Meeting Reflection Template
Works best for:
Meetings, Brainstorming, Team Meetings
When schedules get hectic, “learning by doing” becomes the default way to learn. So make time for your team to learn in other valuable ways — by reflecting and listening. Led by “learners,” (team members who share with the rest of the team), a meeting reflection lets teammates share new information about a client’s business or an internal business initiative, offer problem-solving techniques, or even recommend books or podcasts worth checking out. Meeting reflections also encourage colleagues at all levels to engage in each other’s professional development of their teammates.
Meeting Reflection Template
Works best for:
Meetings, Brainstorming, Team Meetings
When schedules get hectic, “learning by doing” becomes the default way to learn. So make time for your team to learn in other valuable ways — by reflecting and listening. Led by “learners,” (team members who share with the rest of the team), a meeting reflection lets teammates share new information about a client’s business or an internal business initiative, offer problem-solving techniques, or even recommend books or podcasts worth checking out. Meeting reflections also encourage colleagues at all levels to engage in each other’s professional development of their teammates.
Entity Relationship Diagram Template
Works best for:
Flowcharts, Strategic Planning, Diagrams
Sometimes the most important relationships in business are the internal ones—between the teams, entities, and actors within a system. An entity relationship diagram (ERD) is a structural diagram that will help you visualize and understand the many complex connections between different roles. When will an ERD come in handy? It’s a great tool to have for educating and onboarding new employees or members of a team, and our template makes it so easy to customize according to your unique needs.
Start, Stop, Continue Template
Works best for:
Retrospectives, Meetings, Workshops
Giving and receiving feedback can be challenging and intimidating. It’s hard to look back over a quarter or even a week and parse a set of decisions into “positive” and “negative.” The Start Stop Continue framework was created to make it easier to reflect on your team’s recent experiences. The Start Stop Continue template encourages teams to look at specific actions they should start doing, stop doing, and continue doing. Together, collaborators agree on the most important steps to be more productive and successful.