MyMapMad Sad Glad Retrospective
The prompt
Create a Mad Sad Glad retrospective board for a sprint review with categorized team feedback
Make your own version
About the framework
Use reactions to find concrete sprint issues
The board has three columns with an uneven but explicit count: three Mad notes, three Sad notes, and four Glad notes. Mad covers changing requirements, scope-related delay, and meeting overload. Sad covers a teammate leaving, a growing bug backlog, and slow stakeholder feedback.
Glad records an on-time feature, team collaboration, positive UI feedback, and time saved by new tooling. These are sample reactions, and the board does not identify speakers, rank concerns, or assign remedies. A missed deadline and an on-time feature can refer to different work; add context when replacing the examples.
Use the columns to capture what happened and how it affected the team. Keep the contributor’s chosen category, then discuss specific events behind recurring themes and agree on a follow-up change.
What's included
What you get
- Three emotion-based columns
- Three Mad notes about scope and interruptions
- Three Sad notes about people, bugs, and feedback
- Four Glad notes about delivery, teamwork, UI, and tooling
Mad Sad Glad Retrospective
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Frequently asked questions
Common questions
Must each column have the same number of notes?
No. The example has three Mad, three Sad, and four Glad notes. The useful balance comes from honest feedback rather than filling equal quotas.
Can a bug backlog belong in Mad instead of Sad?
Yes. The sample places it in Sad, but the category should reflect how the contributor experienced it. Discuss the event without forcing everyone to use the same emotion label.
How do we turn the emotional feedback into action?
Choose a recurring issue, describe the behavior or constraint behind it, and agree on a change to try. Add an owner and a review point because the supplied board has neither.
Mad Sad Glad Retrospective
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