Mad, Sad, Glad Retro

Mad, Sad, Glad Retrospective

What is a Mad, Sad, Glad retrospective workshop?

This workshop tactic gives you a sense of your team's feelings towards a current or previous project.

This tool will help you each understand your teammates' emotions at any given time and work together more effectively as a group. Creating a safe space to air emotions is an important aspect of building trust in a team.


Mad, Sad, Glad Miro Template


How to run a Mad, Sad, Glad retrospective workshop

1. On a large surface, create three columns with ‘Mad’, ‘Sad’ and ‘Glad’.
Mad Sad Glad retro template
Mad: "What are you mad about?"

Sad: "What are you sad about?"

Glad: "What are you glad about?"

2. On sticky notes, ask each person to spend five minutes writing answers to the question “what are you mad about?”.

3. In turn, have each person post their sticky notes in the 'Mad' column, and briefly talk through each one. Theme Sort as you go.

4. Do the same for the last two columns.

5. Save time at the end of the meeting for discussion. This is a chance to reflect on all the input.

6. Prioritise the top three things to action with Secret Vote. Consider using Who, What, When to ensure there is commitment to the actions.

Origin: Ether Derby & Diana Larsen, 2006

Not sure if this is the right approach for your team at the moment? Try a different discussion tactic to help facilitate your team’s progress together. 

You might like these Workshop Tactics

← Back to Workshop Tactics

Get Workshop Tactics®

Mad, Sad, Glad Retro is one of 54 workshop recipe cards inside the Workshop Tactics card deck.

Confidently lead your product team and design better products, together.