What is Start, Stop, Continue?
Start, Stop, Continue is a retrospective format that organizes a team's feedback into three simple questions about the last sprint:
Start
What should we begin doing? New practices, tools, or habits the team thinks would help.
Stop
What should we quit doing? Things that waste time, cause friction, or aren't working.
Continue
What's working well that we should keep doing on purpose, so it doesn't quietly disappear?
Its strength is focus. Because every note has to be an action-oriented Start, Stop, or Continue, the conversation naturally moves toward change instead of drifting into general venting.
How to run one (in about 30 minutes)
- Collect (10 min). Everyone silently adds notes to the three columns. Anonymous input works well here — it surfaces honest feedback people might hold back in a group.
- Group (5 min). Cluster similar notes so themes stand out instead of a wall of near-duplicates.
- Vote (5 min). Give everyone a few votes to prioritize. The top items rise to the surface democratically.
- Discuss & act (10 min). Talk through the highest-voted items and turn them into action items with an owner. This is the step that makes the retro matter.
Start, Stop, Continue examples for software teams
Start
- Start writing a short test plan before picking up a ticket.
- Start pairing on anything that touches the deploy pipeline.
- Start capturing decisions in the ticket instead of in DMs.
Stop
- Stop merging PRs without a second review.
- Stop pulling in scope mid-sprint without discussing it.
- Stop letting the standup run to 30 minutes.
Continue
- Continue demoing work at the end of the sprint.
- Continue the on-call handover notes — they've been genuinely useful.
- Continue blocking Friday afternoons for cleanup and small fixes.
Facilitation tips
- Time-box each phase. The structure above keeps a retro to ~30 minutes and stops it sprawling.
- Make collection anonymous. You'll get more honest Stops, which are usually the most valuable notes.
- Always end with owned actions. A Start/Stop/Continue with no assigned action items is just a nice chat.
- Revisit last time's actions. Begin the next retro by checking whether the previous actions actually happened. In After Actions, a team's open items carry into its next retro for exactly this review.
Questions teams ask
What is a Start Stop Continue retrospective?
Three questions about the last sprint: what to begin doing, what to quit, and what is working and should be kept on purpose. Every note is phrased as a change.
How long does a Start Stop Continue retrospective take?
About 30 minutes for six to eight people: ten to collect, five to group, five to vote and ten to turn the top items into owned action items.
When should a team use a different format?
When the sprint needs reflection more than decisions: the 4Ls after a big release or incident, Rose, Bud, Thorn for a team new to retros, Sailboat to look ahead at risks.
Why does the Continue column matter?
Good practices fade when nobody names them. Writing them down makes keeping them a decision, and it balances a board that would otherwise be all problems.
More retrospective formats
See all five templates with guidance on choosing between them: Sprint retrospective templates. Related formats: 4Ls, Mad, Sad, Glad, Sailboat, Rose, Bud, Thorn.
Run a Start / Stop / Continue retrospective now
It's a built-in template. Create a board, share the link — no account required.
Start the retro