Roman Retro

Lead your team through an epic sprint retrospective where they become Roman storytellers, chronicling their journey through victories, defeats, and lessons learned. This creative Roman-themed retrospective transforms your standard retro into an engaging narrative experience that encourages honest reflection and memorable discussions.

What Is the Roman Retro?

The Roman Retro is a narrative-driven retrospective format that uses the grandeur and structure of Ancient Rome as a framework for team reflection. Instead of simply listing what went well and what didn't, your team crafts the story of their sprint using Roman metaphors and Latin terminology—turning bugs into battles, features into forums, and technical debt into the forests of uncertainty.

This template reimagines the traditional retrospective through five distinct phases: adopting Roman identities, spinning the wheel to determine your story's theme, collaborating to tell the tale of your sprint, debating outcomes in the Senate, and setting forth new decrees (actions). The Roman theme provides just enough creative distance to make difficult conversations easier while keeping the focus on genuine team improvement.

Benefits & When to Use

The Roman Retro works exceptionally well when your team needs a fresh perspective on familiar challenges. Use this template when:

• Your regular retrospectives have become routine or predictable
• The team has just completed a particularly challenging sprint that needs processing
• You want to encourage more creative thinking about problems and solutions
• Team members are hesitant to share honest feedback in standard formats
• You're looking to inject energy and engagement into your retro practice

The narrative structure helps teams see their work as a connected story rather than isolated incidents. The playful Roman theme creates psychological safety—it's easier to discuss "the downfall at the gates of deployment" than to say "we messed up the release." The metaphorical language often reveals insights that straightforward discussion might miss.

How to Run a Roman Retro Session

1. Introduction & Roman Names (2 minutes)

Start by setting the scene with the introduction page. Have each team member adopt a Roman name for the session—this is their identity for the meeting.

Encourage creativity: Maximus the Merge Master, Octavia of Operations, Testimus the Tester. To enhance the experience, participants can click their avatar and select a Roman helmet icon.

Establish a lighthearted rule: anyone who forgets to use Roman names faces a playful "consequence" decided by the group (perhaps they must speak in formal Latin for their next comment).

2. Spin the Story Wheel (10 minutes)

Use the spinner to randomly select a Roman theme that will frame your sprint story. The wheel includes options like:

• A journey on a Roman Road
• A Roman building
• A Roman God
• A Roman banquet
• A Roman mosaic

Once the wheel lands on your theme, give the team 5-7 minutes to individually add scrolls (sticky notes) to the "Your yarn begins with..." section. Each person should write their piece of the sprint story using the chosen Roman metaphor.

Encourage use of the Latin cheat sheet provided in the template. For example, if you landed on "Roman Road," someone might write: "Our iter began with great spes, but we soon encountered silva when the requirements changed."

3. The Senate Discussion (30 minutes)

This is the main reflection phase, structured around three columns:

Victoria (Worked Well) - What successes should you celebrate? Which strategies proved effective?

Veritas (Kinda Worked) - What approaches showed promise but need refinement? What almost worked?

Caedes (Didn't Work) - What failed or caused problems? What should you abandon or fix?

Have team members spend 5-7 minutes silently adding sticky notes to these three sections, reflecting on the sprint through the lens of the story you've told.

Once everyone has added their thoughts, facilitate a discussion. Read through each column, grouping similar themes. The visual elements (Roman columns, laurels, scrolls) serve as reminders that you're building something together—a shared understanding of your sprint experience.

Vote on the most important topics to discuss if you have many items. Focus the conversation on the items that generated the most interest or concern.

4. What Is Your Roman Empire? (5 minutes)

Use this section for topics that don't fit neatly into the sprint reflection but are occupying team members' thoughts. In modern slang, someone's "Roman Empire" is something they think about frequently.

Ask: "What's on your mind that we haven't discussed? What keeps coming up in your thoughts about our work?"

This provides space for broader concerns about tools, processes, team dynamics, or upcoming challenges that deserve attention even if they weren't part of the sprint just completed.

5. Gladiators! (5 minutes)

Conclude by setting actions—your team's decrees going forward. These are the concrete changes you'll implement based on your discussion.

For each action:

• Write it clearly on a sticky note
• Assign it to a specific team member (Ludi will track status and send reminders)
• Ensure it's achievable before your next retrospective

Aim for 2-4 meaningful actions rather than a long list. As the Romans knew, disciplined focus wins battles.

Tips for a Successful Roman Retro Session

Embrace the theme fully. The Roman Retro works best when your team commits to the concept. As facilitator, set the tone by using Latin terms and the Roman names consistently. The more your team leans into the theme, the more psychological safety it creates.

Don't let the metaphor obscure meaning. While the Roman language adds creativity, ensure everyone understands what's actually being discussed. If someone says "the aqueductus was blocked," follow up with "so our deployment pipeline had issues?" to maintain clarity.

Use the Latin cheat sheet strategically. The provided Latin terms help teams articulate complex situations in memorable ways. When someone uses a term like "testudo" (tortoise formation) to describe how the team stuck together under pressure, it creates a shared language for future discussions.

Adjust the story wheel to your team's style. Some teams love the randomness of the spinner and will run with any theme it lands on. Others may prefer to preview the options and vote on their favorite. Know your team's tolerance for improvisation.

Watch the time in the Senate section. With three columns and multiple topics, this section can easily overrun. Use dot voting if you have many stickies, focusing discussion on the top 3-4 items per column. It's better to have meaningful conversations about fewer topics than surface-level discussions about everything.

Connect the dots between sections. Reference the story-telling section during your Senate discussion: "Remember when Marcus talked about the silva we encountered? That connects to these Veritas items about unclear requirements."

Save the stories for future reference. The creative stories your team tells about the sprint often reveal insights that emerge only in retrospective. Screenshot the scrolls and Latin-heavy descriptions—they might inform how you frame future work or celebrations.

Consider team energy levels. This template is longer and more involved than a basic retro. Schedule it when your team has energy to engage creatively, not at the end of a draining sprint week. Friday afternoons might not be ideal—try mid-morning or early week instead.

Remember: Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a high-performing team. Use this retro format to build your own lasting structures of continuous improvement.