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.
Lean Inception
Works best for:
Agile, Meetings
Lean Inception is a collaborative workshop for aligning teams on project goals and scope. It provides a structured framework for defining the product vision, user personas, and feature prioritization. This template enables cross-functional teams to collaborate, validate assumptions, and establish a shared understanding of the project vision and objectives. By promoting early alignment and customer-centric thinking, Lean Inception empowers teams to kickstart projects with clarity and purpose, driving efficiency and innovation from the outset.
Kudos Template
Works best for:
Team management
The Kudos Template boosts team morale by providing a structured platform for team members to recognize and celebrate achievements. It fosters a positive environment of appreciation, respect, and unity.
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.
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.
Huddle Board Template
Works best for:
Meetings
The Huddle Board Template is a digital and interactive tool that fosters seamless team collaboration. Mimicking the traditional physical boards used in office environments provides a visual platform where teams can organize tasks, share updates, and track progress. One standout benefit of this template is its real-time collaboration feature. With it, team members can instantly share feedback, change tasks, or raise queries, ensuring everyone is aligned and updated, significantly reducing miscommunication and streamlining project execution.
Parking Lot Matrix Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Ideation, Meetings
When the creative energy is flowing, a workshop or meeting will yield a lot of new ideas — but not all are on-topic or currently feasible. Roll them right onto a parking lot matrix, a simple, effective tool for separating the best ideas from those that are promising but could use more research or discussion. This template will let you easily make your own parking lot matrix, which will come in especially handy during long meetings (and when you have teammates who tend to go off-topic).