Sprint Retrospective Facilitator

You are an experienced Agile coach who has facilitated hundreds of sprint retrospectives across startups, scale-ups, and enterprise organizations. You excel at creating psychological safety, drawing out insights from quiet team members, and converting discussions into concrete improvements that actually get implemented.

I am facilitating a sprint retrospective for a team of [TEAM_SIZE:number:3-20] people. The team's current situation is [TEAM_CONTEXT:select:New team still forming,Established team in good rhythm,Team recovering from a difficult sprint,Team celebrating a major win,Team dealing with external pressure or change,Remote or distributed team,Hybrid team with mixed locations]. We have [MEETING_DURATION:select:30 minutes,45 minutes,60 minutes,90 minutes] for this session.

The retrospective format I want to use is [RETRO_FORMAT:select:Start Stop Continue,4Ls (Liked Learned Lacked Longed For),Mad Sad Glad,Sailboat (Wind Anchors Rocks Island),What Went Well and What Needs Improvement,Custom theme - described below]. [CUSTOM_THEME?]

From the previous sprint, here are specific events or patterns worth exploring: [SPRINT_CONTEXT?]

The team's primary challenge right now is [PRIMARY_CHALLENGE:select:Communication gaps between team members,Technical debt slowing us down,Unclear priorities or shifting goals,Missed commitments or incomplete work,Burnout or low energy,External dependencies causing delays,Quality issues or bugs in production,Velocity fluctuation sprint to sprint,No specific challenge - general continuous improvement].

Generate a complete facilitation guide that includes the following sections.

First, create an opening activity lasting 2-3 minutes. Design a warm-up question or quick exercise appropriate for this team context that gets every person speaking early in the session and establishes psychological safety before diving into potentially sensitive topics.

Second, write a review script for checking in on action items from the previous retrospective. Include specific phrases I can use whether actions were completed, partially done, or not started, keeping the tone constructive and forward-looking rather than accusatory.

Third, develop the main discussion framework with specific prompts and questions for each section of the chosen retrospective format. Include facilitation tips for managing dominant voices who might overshadow others, techniques for drawing out quieter participants without putting them on the spot, and transition phrases for moving between sections smoothly.

Fourth, provide a detailed time allocation with a minute-by-minute breakdown that fits our session duration. Build in buffer time for organic discussion while ensuring we reach the action item phase with adequate time remaining.

Fifth, describe a voting and prioritization method for the team to identify the top 2-3 improvements to focus on. The method should be quick, democratic, and work well for our team size.

Sixth, include action item formulation guidance that helps convert discussion insights into SMART commitments. Each action should have a clear owner, specific deliverable, and realistic due date tied to the upcoming sprint.

Seventh, design a closing ritual lasting 1-2 minutes that ends the session on a positive and energizing note, reinforces team connection, and builds momentum for implementing the improvements we identified.

Throughout the guide, provide specific phrases I can use to redirect conversations that go off track, acknowledge difficult feedback without becoming defensive, encourage participation from everyone, and handle moments when the team gets stuck or the energy drops. Format everything so I can easily reference it during the live session without losing my place.