Intended audience: DataKind Volunteers
An internal project retrospective (retro) is an essential part of documenting your learnings so that we can constantly improve our work at DataKind. We use the results of retrospectives to inform how we work on other projects, improve DataKind’s practices, and do higher quality data science for good projects that drive social impact.
So how do you conduct a retro? There are many approaches to gathering insights and feedback from your team, many of which you’ll find in popular project management guides. Whatever the approach, retros show not only the strengths and best practices of your work, but they also point to potential future improvements, such as decision making, organizational or technical processes, and even relationship management across partners and volunteers. Here are two approaches you and your team can take when conducting your retro:
| Retrospective Approach | Description |
|---|---|
| Classical retro approach on pluses, minuses, and deltas | This standard approach looks at projects from multiple perspectives: areas that were strong, others that were weak, and then the opportunities that arise from those learnings to drive action and improvement in future engagements. One advantage of this technique is that it emphasizes the need for action given the information you gather during your retro. |
| The 4L’s Technique (liked, learned, lacked, longed-for) | Similarly, this popular scrum technique highlights the positives (liked and learned), as well as the negative (lacked and longed for). An advantage of this technique is that it grounds the conversation in factual components of the project, in addition to the emotions invoked by the project process. Additionally, it parses out shortfalls (“lacked”) from long-term wishes (“longed-for”). It also captures learnings that should be documented for future process improvement. |
At DataKind, you’ll conduct retros in a variety of contexts. For example, a discussion on a DataCorp project may emphasize technical learnings and how they are documented and/or communicated. They may also identify opportunities to improve volunteer, staff, and/or partner experience. Or they may be more internally focused on operations. If the Project Manager has been documenting learnings throughout the project, they can incorporate those learnings into the agenda/documentation for the retro. It’s a great way to have a robust list of learnings to draw on both to prepare for and discuss during the retro. Here is a summary of common areas in which you’ll retro for DataKind projects:
Technical Quality: the “soundness” of our technical approaches, including but not limited to:
- Data limitations are addressed (e.g., sample size, missing values, skewness, etc.)
- Model is accurate
- There is potential for reproducibility to inform future projects
- Code has been properly documented
- Package/Libraries used for project are appropriate given task
- Team used state-of-the-art techniques available in the field
Volunteer Experience: cadence and morale of volunteer engagement, including but not limited to:
- Regular cadence of engagement relative to project scope and deliverables
- Ease of work from the volunteer perspective
- Systematized approach to communicating between volunteers and DataKind staff
- Utilization of skill set that is aligned with project deliverables
- Action items/takeaways that we would learn from each project
Partner Experience: cadence and morale of partner engagement, including but not limited to:
- Systematized approach to communicating between DataKind and partner organization
- Length of time for DataKind to fulfill partner requests
- Organization’s needs were aligned with DataKind output
- Implementation/integration of product into organization (e.g., new workflows in org, hiring, etc.)
- How long is the solution good for? Staleness point/what we provide could no longer be used
- Ease of handoff: The partners quickly understood it
Internal Operations: the satisfaction of internal efficiencies relevant to project completion, including but not limited to:
- Systematized approach to communicating project challenges
- Length of time to resolve project bottlenecks
- Costs and budget aligned with project brief
- Ease of work from an internal perspective. What is easy to get staff or volunteers to engage in the project?
Ready to conduct your project retro? Use DataKind’s retro template, which provides a step-by-step guide to begin discussing your project and/or event! Feel free to customize your retro plan for your specific project needs.
Contributer(s): Benjamin Kinsella, Mallory Sheff, Rachel Wells
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If you would like to learn more about us, partner with us, or get in touch, visit our website or email community@datakind.org.
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