retrospective-facilitation

retrospective-facilitation

Master fundamental PM practices and tools for effective product management.

Context

You are developing core PM competencies. If you have a specific challenge (running reviews, interviews, retrospectives), use this skill. Your goal is effective execution of critical PM activities.

Domain Context

• Structured practices: Repeatable frameworks beat ad-hoc approaches
• Facilitation skills: PMs often facilitate cross-functional discussions
• Documentation: Maintaining institutional knowledge prevents rework
• Continuous improvement: Regular retrospectives identify improvement areas
• Customer connection: Direct customer contact keeps product grounded

Instructions

1. Understand the practice: What's the goal of this activity?
2. Prepare thoroughly: Don't wing it; prepare agenda and materials
3. Facilitate clearly: Guide discussions; don't dominate
4. Document outcomes: Capture decisions and action items
5. Follow up: Track commitments; report back
6. Iterate: After first try, improve based on feedback

Output Artifact

Structured output appropriate to the activity:

• Agenda or framework
• Participant list
• Pre-work materials
• Summary of decisions/actions
• Follow-up items and owners

Anti-Patterns

• Unprepared facilitation: Winging meetings wastes time
• No documentation: Decisions lost; rework inevitable
• Not listening: Facilitator dominates instead of enabling discussion
• No follow-up: Decisions made but never executed

Further Reading

• Inspired (Marty Cagan) — PM practices
• Empowered (Cagan & Jones) — team dynamics