Rose, Bud, Thorn Template
Identify the positive outcomes and the challenges ahead to improve your processes with the Rose, Bud, Thorn Template.
About the Rose, Bud, Thorn Template
The Rose, Bud, Thorn template in Miro is a powerful tool designed to help teams reflect on their experiences and identify key insights. This structured exercise allows participants to categorize their thoughts into three distinct areas:
Rose: Highlights the successes and what is working well.
Bud: Focuses on potential opportunities and areas for growth.
Thorn: Identifies challenges and what is not working well.
This template is versatile and can be used in various contexts, such as project reviews, team-building activities, and feedback sessions. It encourages open communication and helps teams to collaboratively identify areas of improvement and celebrate successes.
How to use the Rose, Bud, Thorn Template
The Rose, Bud, Thorn template is a structured method for team reflection and feedback. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use each section of the template:
Rose (Positive Aspects)
Purpose: Identify and highlight the positive aspects of a project or situation.
How to use: Ask participants to write down what went well, successes, and strengths. These could be achievements, effective strategies, or any positive outcomes.
Example: "Our marketing campaign increased user engagement by 20%."
Bud (Potential Opportunities)
Purpose: Spot potential opportunities for growth and improvement.
How to use: Encourage team members to note down ideas, opportunities, and areas that show promise but need further development.
Example: "We have the potential to expand our social media presence to new platforms."
Thorn (Challenges and Issues)
Purpose: Identify and address challenges, issues, and areas of concern.
How to use: Have participants list down problems, obstacles, and anything that didn’t go as planned.
Example: "We faced delays due to miscommunication between teams."
Action Points and Discussion
Purpose: Synthesize insights and create actionable steps.
How to use: Group similar sticky notes together to identify patterns and themes. Use theme sticky notes to name these clusters, which can help in synthesizing learnings. Throughout the exercise, keep referring back to the initial focus area to ensure discussions remain relevant and productive.
Example: "Improve communication channels between teams to avoid future delays."
Using AI Sidekicks Agile Coach for Extra Insights
To enhance the reflection process, you can leverage Miro’s AI Sidekicks Agile Coach. Here’s how:
Generate ideas: Use the Agile Coach persona to brainstorm new ideas during the Bud section. The AI can suggest innovative approaches and potential opportunities.
Identify key themes: During the Action Points and Discussion phase, the Agile Coach can help identify key themes from the retrospective, ensuring that no critical insights are missed.
Suggest next steps: The Agile Coach can provide suggestions for actionable next steps based on the identified Roses, Buds, and Thorns, helping the team to move forward effectively.
Why should you use the Rose, Bud, Thorn Template?
The Rose, Bud, Thorn template is a simple yet effective tool for fostering open communication and collaborative problem-solving within teams. Here are a few reasons why it is beneficial:
Encourages balanced feedback: By categorizing feedback into positive, negative, and potential areas, it ensures a balanced view of the situation. This structure helps teams to appreciate their successes while also addressing challenges and exploring new opportunities.
Promotes team engagement: It involves all team members in the reflection process, making them feel heard and valued. This inclusive approach can boost morale and foster a sense of ownership and accountability among team members.
Identifies opportunities: It helps teams recognize challenges and identify potential opportunities for growth and improvement. This forward-looking perspective can drive innovation and continuous improvement within the team.
Facilitates structured discussions: The clear structure of the template helps in organizing thoughts and discussions, making the feedback process more efficient. This can lead to more productive meetings and actionable insights.
Adaptable: The Rose, Bud, Thorn template can be used in various contexts, such as project reviews, team-building activities, and feedback sessions. Its versatility makes it a valuable tool for different types of teams and projects.
Supports mindful reflection: The template encourages participants to reflect on their experiences, which can lead to deeper insights and more thoughtful decision-making.
In summary, the Rose, Bud, Thorn template is a powerful retro tool that can help teams reflect on their experiences, celebrate successes, address challenges, and identify opportunities for growth. Its structured approach promotes balanced feedback, team engagement, and productive discussions, making it an essential tool for any team looking to improve their processes and outcomes.
Get started with this template right now.
Check-In Icebreaker Template
Works best for:
Icebreakers, Meetings
Run a dynamic online session with the Check-in Icebreaker Template. Use this icebreaker before your meeting to boost energy levels, connect people, and warm up the room.
Alignment Chart Template
Works best for:
Desk Research, Brainstorming, Team Meetings
The alignment chart originated in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game to allow players to categorize their characters according to their ethical and moral perspectives. Since then, people around the world have begun to use the alignment chart as a fun way to describe their own characteristics and personas, as well as fictional characters, famous people, and much more. In the conventional set-up, you figure out your placement in the alignment chart based on your views on law, chaoss, good, and evil. But you can adapt the alignment chart to reflect any characteristics you wish to use to create personas.
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.
4 L's Retrospective Template
Works best for:
Retrospectives, Decision Making
So you just completed a sprint. Teams busted their humps and emotions ran high. Now take a clear-eyed look back and grade the sprint honestly—what worked, what didn’t, and what can be improved. This approach (4Ls stand for liked, learned, lacked, and longed for) is an invaluable way to remove the emotion and look at the process critically. That’s how you can build trust, improve morale, and increase engagement—as well as make adjustments to be more productive and successful in the future.
One-on-one Meeting Template
Works best for:
Meetings
Ensure your meetings are productive by using a one-on-one meeting template. Create and stick to your agenda items, understand what’s going well, what isn’t working, and how to improve. Discuss what’s been accomplished and what’s still in progress.
User Story Map Template
Works best for:
Marketing, Desk Research, Mapping
Popularized by Jeff Patton in 2005, the user story mapping technique is an agile way to manage product backlogs. Whether you’re working alone or with a product team, you can leverage user story mapping to plan product releases. User story maps help teams stay focused on the business value and release features that customers care about. The framework helps to get a shared understanding for the cross-functional team of what needs to be done to satisfy customers' needs.