5 Essential Meetings that Product Managers need to have regularly — (4) Retro Meetings
A Product Manager works by Collaborating, Information Gathering, Influencing, Strategising. To do this, they have to regularly meet and discuss with multiple stakeholders in the company. For this reason, meetings are an essential part of a PM’s job. In this blog, we will discuss the absolutely important meetings that Product Managers need to have regularly to keep their work in order. We will also cover:
- Why these meetings are important?
- Who should be part of these meetings?
- Who should be leading them?
- What could be their frequency?
- How to Ace these meetings?
Meeting 4 — Retro Meetings
Retro meetings or Retrospective meetings, as the name suggests are a way of reflecting on your work and thinking about what you did well, what could have been done better, what learnings would you like to take forward. You can apply this simple philosophy in every aspect of your life and work. In this blog, we will discuss why, where, and how to can do these Retro meetings
Why this meeting is important?
When done with the entire team, retro meetings help spot issues, identify opportunities, appreciate wins, and take corrective steps forward collectively. These meetings help in deeper analysis, leading to better processes and efficient task execution
Who should be part of this meeting?
Retro meetings can be done with different kinds of teams. But here we will discuss the one that you as a Product Manager can do with your working team of developers, designers, UX researchers, data analysts, QA, support, etc
This meeting can be lead by the Product Manager or by a neutral third party who can facilitate this meeting without any bias, doing so can encourage greater participation and uncover more insights from the team
What could be the frequency of this meeting?
You can conduct and customize Retro meetings according to your working style. You can do retro meetings at the end of each Sprint, or month, or quarter. You can even do Retro meetings at the end of each week if you want to closely analyze each week's performance
How to Ace this meeting?
Strategize this meeting in advance so that you have everything handy when you start it. Retros are meant to be open discussions, where you can draw quick insights and move forward with the learnings and action items. Here are some steps you can take in advance to organize & execute these meetings better:
Decide on the facilitator for the meeting — If you are doing Retros every week, then you can be the facilitator as it might be challenging to get facilitators every week. But you can arrange for a third-party facilitator from some other team or anyone who is not involved in the products/projects you are working on
Give the meeting guidelines — Explain to the facilitator how she/he is supposed to conduct the meeting. You can take the facilitator through the tools she/he will be using and how they will be using it
Finalize the tools — You will need a common space for everyone to put forward their thoughts, assimilate them, analyze, and then put across the action points or steps forward. For doing this, you will need a large whiteboard or a wall (if in-person team meeting), if you are doing this online then get some online collaboration tools — like online whiteboarding tools, Trello, Confluence, etc. Get enough markers and Post-It notes for everyone if you are doing it in-person
Set the time period — Define the time period or project you’re discussing for the Retro (this week, last sprint, last quarter, the entire project, etc.)
Send out invites — Send calendar invites in advance (at least 7 days prior to the Retro call) to your team members mentioning the Retro agenda, time period/project to be discussed. This will give some time to your team to prepare in advance so that the Retro can be completed within 30–40 mins max
Set the Stage for the Retro — When you/the facilitator starts the Retro meeting, it is important to set the stage. Make your team feel comfortable and request them to share their feedback and analysis openly. The focus should be on learning & improvement as you move forward, and not to place blame on people for things that did not go right. Listen with an open mind and don’t make or take anything personal
Start with a recap of the last Retro meeting, just highlighting the points discussed and the status of the finalized action items. If it is your first Retro, then you can recap the major tasks, wins, setbacks, issues, and any other highlights in the time period or project that you are going to discuss
Create three sections on the board — What we did well, What we can do better, Actions, and ask your team members including you to write down their analysis & ideas — one point per note and stick it below the sections accordingly. Take one section at a time, and proceed to the next when everyone is done with a section
Group similar or related points/ideas and then briefly discuss each point to uncover the actual problem areas and what could have been done better to prevent it
Brainstorm for Action Points — come up with precise action points that the team can quickly incorporate going forward which will act upon the problem areas that were discussed in the Retro call
Prioritize Action Points — If there are many action points, you can prioritize them by asking your team members to vote for them, and then prioritize them accordingly
Finalize on the team members who would be responsible for executing the action points, ask for suggestions from the team leads if required, also set a timeline for these action points to be executed
Take notes, take photos of the whiteboard/wall, or record the meeting to ensure that you don’t miss out on anything discussed during the meeting
Follow through the Action points — Make sure that you follow through with the action points discussed in the meeting and see that they are actioned upon
MOM — You can send out MOM (Minutes of the Meeting) to the team highlighting the important points discussed, action items along with the team member it is assigned to, and any timelines
Read about the other 4 Essential Meetings that Product Managers need to have regularly
Daily Standup — https://productpeas.medium.com/5-essential-meetings-that-product-managers-need-to-have-regularly-cecc0474b9e0
Team Sync-up — https://productpeas.medium.com/5-essential-meetings-that-product-managers-need-to-have-regularly-2-c4f563d52d7e
Business Stakeholders Catch-up — https://productpeas.medium.com/5-essential-meetings-that-product-managers-need-to-have-regularly-3-665293132af3
User Meetings — https://productpeas.medium.com/5-essential-meetings-that-product-managers-need-to-have-regularly-5-30f8587d3394
