Super Mario Sprint

One of my favorite parts about being a Scrum Master is getting to design new creative formats for Sprint Retrospectives. Super Mario Sprint is a Sprint Retrospective activity that I created which helps teams reflect on their sprint by placing wins and impediments on a timeline.

Part 1: Facilitator Preparation

To facilitate a Super Mario Sprint workshop you will need the following:

• A place to display a long horizontal timeline
• Character printouts (you can print out copies of the images used in this article)
• Writing utensils
• A timer
• A method for attaching the character printouts to the timeline (e.g., tape, tacks, clothespins, etc.)

Once you have collected the necessary materials, create a long horizontal timeline visible to the entire team. This timeline will represent the duration of the sprint. I usually draw the timeline on a whiteboard, but you can also use string, or painter’s tape and display the timeline on a blank wall, a table, or the floor.

Add some Super Mario touches to your timeline by marking the left side with a green pipe and the right side with a flag. I also suggest marking the center of the timeline to indicate the half-way point of the sprint. For example, if your team works in two-week sprints, a marker placed at the middle of the timeline would represent the one-week mark.

Part 2: Introduction

Now it’s time to get the team involved. Provide each team member with something to write with and several printouts of each character. Next, explain to the group what each character represents.

Character Representations

Stars

Just like in Super Mario, stars represent power-ups. A power-up can be anything from a well-defined user story to a productive brainstorming session.

Image from http://mariopowerups.blogspot.com/2011/01/other-stuff.html

Goombas

Goombas represent small interferences encountered during a sprint. Just as Mario encounters many Goombas while adventuring through Mushroom Kingdom, a scrum team may encounter many small, but inconvenient obstacles throughout a sprint.

Image from https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Goomba

Piranha Plants

Piranha Plants represent larger obstacles or blockers encountered during a sprint. Unlike Goombas, Piranha Plants are more rare and are often more difficult to beat; in other words, Piranha Plants are more so problems than they are inconveniences.

Image from https://newermario.fandom.com/wiki/Piranha_Plant

Part 3: Individual and Group Reflection

Once the team has a firm understanding of the character representations, you may begin the reflection portion of this activity.

Start Positive

Ask the team to silently think of the “power-ups” they encountered during the sprint. Allow the team four minutes to write down their ideas (one idea per star).

Once the four minutes is up, have each team member share his/her responses and place their stars on the timeline according to when the “power-up” had the most positive impact (this may be when the “power-up” was introduced or later). Be sure to limit this portion of the activity to no more than two minutes per person.

What Were The Challenges?

Next, ask the team to silently think of the trivial challenges they encountered during the sprint. Allow the team four minutes to silently write down their ideas on the Goomba character printouts (one idea per Goomba).

Immediately after the second reflection exercise, ask the team to silently think of the larger obstacles they encountered during the sprint. Allow an additional four minutes for the team to write down their responses on the Piranha Plant printouts (one idea per Piranha Plant).

Next, ask the team to work together to place their goombas and piranha plants on the timeline. For issues that presented themselves multiple times throughout the sprint, the team has the following options:

• Place multiple markers for the same issue on the timeline.
• Place a marker on the timeline for when the issue first introduced itself.

Optional: Mark the Destroyed Obstacles

Using a marker, ask the team to place an X on any of the character printouts representing obstacles that the team solved during the sprint. For example if one of the responses is, “we found a bug in the code,” and that bug was fixed during the sprint, cross it out.

Part 4: Brainstorm Solutions

After the team has finished placing their goombas and piranha plants on the timeline, it’s time to start brainstorming possible solutions for the listed impediments. First, work with the team to identify which impediments they would most like to address (you may use dot voting for this).

For the highest priority impediment, create a How Might We (HMW) statement.

Example

Impediment: context switching

HMW statement: How might we limit context switching throughout the day?

Allow the team four minutes to write down their responses to the HMW statement then have them display their answers for the entire team to see.

Part 5: Decide What To Do

Use dot voting or another technique to determine which solution the team thinks would take the least amount of effort and have the highest impact. Finally, take that top rated solution and create an experiment that the team can implement.

What Did Ya Think?

What are your thoughts on this workshop format? Is this a workshop you’d like to try with your team?

If you try out the Super Mario Sprint workshop format I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below! Thank you!