Starfish Retrospective
A five-category format that provides more nuanced feedback than Start Stop Continue — perfect for experienced Agile teams that need finer-grained improvements.
What Is the Starfish Format?
The Starfish retrospective was created by Patrick Kua. It expands on Start Stop Continue by adding two additional gradations — "More Of" and "Less Of" — allowing teams to express nuanced feedback about things that are partially working but need adjustment.
Start Doing
New behaviors, practices, or tools the team should introduce. Things not currently happening that would provide value.
Stop Doing
Things that are clearly not working and should be abandoned. Behaviors or practices that hurt more than they help.
Keep Doing
Things working well that should be explicitly protected and continued into the next sprint.
More Of
Things the team is already doing that would be even more valuable if done more frequently or more thoroughly.
Less Of
Things the team does that have some value but take up too much time or focus — not worth stopping entirely, just scaling back.
Example Cards
Starfish vs. Start Stop Continue
The core difference is precision. Start Stop Continue forces a binary judgment — something is either working (Continue) or not (Stop). Starfish adds a middle ground: "More Of" and "Less Of" let teams fine-tune practices that are partially effective rather than abandoning them entirely.
- More Of / Less Of reduce false dichotomies in team feedback
- Teams can express nuanced opinions rather than oversimplifying
- Five categories generate richer discussion and more targeted action items
- Better suited to experienced teams — five columns can overwhelm teams new to retrospectives
Try the Starfish with your team
Select the Starfish template in BugNBrag — free, no account required.
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