Whiteboard PromptsSprint retrospective on Claude Whiteboards
Collect notes, let Claude cluster them by theme, vote, dig into the top three problems and leave with owned action items.
Use it when: End of a sprint or project phase, 4 to 10 people, at least one of them remote.
Sprint retrospective
What you type here fills every prompt below and stays in this browser.
- 0′Lay out the board
- 3′Bring forward last retro's actions
- 7′Silent writing
- 17′Cluster by theme
- 22′Vote
- 27′Dig into the top three
- 47′Write the actions
- 55′Close and send the summary
Agenda, 60 minutes. Click a time to jump to its step.
Before the meeting
- Open the board 10 minutes early and run step 1, so people join a board that already has its columns.
- Click Share and invite everyone by email. Guests outside your organization need the outside-invitations setting turned on by a Team or Enterprise admin.
- Have last retro's action items ready to paste into the chat. Claude only sees what is on the board, not your connected apps.
- 0–3 min
Lay out the board
Run this before people join. Check that the four columns sit side by side and the action table is at the bottom.
Start a whiteboard for our retrospective on Sprint 14, the checkout redesign. Across the top, add a title with the sprint name and an empty sticky note labeled "Sprint goal". Below it, make four columns side by side with these headers: "Went well", "Didn't go well", "Puzzles us", "Ideas to try". Leave each column empty. At the bottom, add a section called "Action items" laid out as a table with the columns Action, Owner, Due.
Board after this stepTitle strip, four empty columns, an empty action table.
- 3–7 min
Bring forward last retro's actions
Paste last retro's action list where the bracket is. The team says done, partly done or dropped for each one while you color them.
Add a small section to the left of the four columns called "Last time we said". Put each of these action items on its own sticky note, keeping the wording: [paste last retro's action items]. Color the notes I mark as done green, partly done yellow, dropped grey.Board after this stepA short column of last retro's actions, colored by status, so repeat problems are visible before anyone writes.
- 7–17 min
Silent writing
Everyone adds sticky notes directly to the four columns, one point per note. Remote people who prefer talking can dictate: select the microphone next to the send button and talk, then send. Use this prompt for anyone dictating.
Add what I'm about to say as separate sticky notes under "Didn't go well", one note per point. Keep each note under 12 words and keep my wording. Don't merge points that sound similar. Put my initials at the end of each note: [initials].Board after this stepThirty to sixty sticky notes across the four columns.
- 17–22 min
Cluster by theme
Read the theme names out loud. If a note landed in the wrong group, drag it; nobody needs to ask Claude for that.
In each of the four columns, group the sticky notes by theme. Draw a labeled box around each group, name the theme in three to five plain words, and put the number of notes in the label, for example "Flaky staging deploys (6)". Don't delete, merge or reword any note. Notes that fit no theme go in a group called "Other".
Board after this stepEach column now has three to six named groups with counts.
- 22–27 min
Vote
Each person adds three dots next to the themes they most want to talk about (the sticker or pen tool works). Then run the prompt.
Count the dots next to each theme in "Didn't go well" and "Puzzles us". Reorder the themes in those two columns from most to fewest dots and write the dot count in each label. Put a thick outline around the top three themes overall.
Board after this stepThe top three themes stand out; the rest move down.
- 27–47 min
Dig into the top three
About six minutes per theme. Drag a box around one theme group on the board, then type the prompt into the box that opens, so Claude looks only at that part.
Look only at the notes in this group. What single cause do most of them share? Add one note to the right of the group starting with "Cause:". Then add up to three notes starting with "Option:", each a change we could make in the next sprint, with effort marked S, M or L. Don't add options that need another team's approval.
Board after this stepEvery top theme has a cause note and two or three sized options beside it. The team ticks the options it wants to keep.
- 47–55 min
Write the actions
Read each row aloud and get a yes from the owner before moving on. Red owner cells are the ones still open.
Turn every option with a tick into a row in the "Action items" table. Each action starts with a verb and is small enough to finish before the next retro. Owner must be one person from Ana, Ben, Chloe, Dev and Eli. Due is a date before the next retro. If no owner was agreed for a row, leave the Owner cell empty and color it red.
Board after this stepAction table filled, every row with one owner and a date.
- 55–60 min
Close and send the summary
Read the summary aloud, fix anything in the doc, then share it in the team channel.
Turn this board into a one-page retro summary doc with these sections: Sprint goal, What went well (theme names only), Top three problems (theme, cause we agreed, chosen option), Action items (the table as it is on the board), Carried over from last time (anything grey or yellow in "Last time we said"). Keep it under 300 words and don't add anything that is not on the board.
Board after this stepThe board stays as the record; a short doc goes to the team.
After the meeting
Action tracker sheet
Create a sheet from the "Action items" table on this board with the columns Action, Owner, Due, Status. Make Status a drop-down with Not started, In progress, Done and Dropped. Sort by Due.
Send to Miro or Lucid
Before I send this board to Miro, tidy it: align the four columns, make all theme boxes the same width, and move the action table so it starts directly under the columns.
Next retro's opener
Keep this list for next time: write out the action items from this board as a plain numbered list I can paste into the next retro's "Last time we said" step.
What goes wrong on Claude Whiteboards
- Ask Claude not to reword notes in every grouping prompt. Without it, a theme pass can quietly shorten what people wrote, and the author no longer recognizes their note.
- Use the drag-a-box focus for the deep dive. A board-wide "what is the root cause" question mixes every theme together and the answer goes vague.
- Paste last retro's actions as text. Boards can't be imported from a file and Claude does not read your connected apps from a board.
Board layout
A board with four note columns, named theme groups with vote counts, a root-cause note beside each of the top three themes, and an action table with an owner and a due date on every row. Plus a one-page summary doc and an action tracker sheet.
Agenda at a glance
| Minutes | Step | What the board shows afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| 0–3 | Lay out the board | Title strip, four empty columns, an empty action table. |
| 3–7 | Bring forward last retro's actions | A short column of last retro's actions, colored by status, so repeat problems are visible before anyone writes. |
| 7–17 | Silent writing | Thirty to sixty sticky notes across the four columns. |
| 17–22 | Cluster by theme | Each column now has three to six named groups with counts. |
| 22–27 | Vote | The top three themes stand out; the rest move down. |
| 27–47 | Dig into the top three | Every top theme has a cause note and two or three sized options beside it. The team ticks the options it wants to keep. |
| 47–55 | Write the actions | Action table filled, every row with one owner and a date. |
| 55–60 | Close and send the summary | The board stays as the record; a short doc goes to the team. |