Run a Retrospective

Before you start

• Make sure the incident timeline is reasonably complete.
• Gather the responders who can explain what happened and what should change.

Do this

1. Open Retro and choose the incident.
2. Start the retrospective if it has not been started yet.
3. Fill in the summary, root cause, what went well, what went wrong, and action items.
4. Review the incident metrics and override detected, acknowledged, mitigated, or resolved timestamps only if the measured values need correction.
5. Add follow-up tasks as you identify concrete actions.
6. Complete the retrospective when the write-up and task list are ready for handoff.

Check it worked

• The retrospective explains the incident without relying on meeting notes.
• Action items are captured as tasks instead of hidden in prose.
• The retrospective state moves from Not started to In progress to Completed as work advances.

If it does not work

• If the team is still debating facts, save the retro in progress and come back with the missing context.
• If action items are vague, rewrite them as specific tasks with one owner or team.
• If the metrics are misleading, fix the timeline inputs before you finalize the retro.

Next

• Export and follow through
• Build a retro follow-up runbook