ScrumMastr
Moodboard

Mad sad glad retrospective, as a quick vote

A mad sad glad retrospective usually runs on a board full of sticky notes. This is the fast variant without a board: everyone casts one vote, Mad, Sad, or Glad, the host reveals, and the team talks about what the spread shows.

Start a mad sad glad vote

What this is, and what it is not

ScrumMastr has no sticky-note board and no free-text cards. Each person gets one vote per round on three cards: Mad, Sad, or Glad. After the reveal you see how many people picked each feeling and which display name picked what, but not the reasons. The reasons come from the conversation, out loud or in your call chat.

If your retro depends on people writing and clustering their own notes, use a board tool for that. If you want a ten minute temperature read before a longer retro, or instead of one when time is short, this fits.

When to use the quick vote

After a rough sprint

Let people name the feeling first, then talk. Emotions before actions keeps the room honest.

A short retro slot

Fifteen minutes left? A vote and one good conversation beats a rushed board.

Opening a longer retro

Start with the vote to set the mood, then move on to Start, Stop, Continue or another format.

Video call fatigue

No board to load, no notes to type. Everyone taps one card.

Run it in about 10 minutes

  1. 1

    Create the room (1 min)

    The button below opens a moodboard room with the Mad / Sad / Glad deck already selected. Share the link in the call chat. No accounts are needed.

  2. 2

    Set a narrow question (1 min)

    Start a round and use the round title for the topic. Mad, sad, or glad about what? The sprint, the release, or the last two weeks of on-call all work. Avoid asking about everything at once.

  3. 3

    Vote (1 min)

    Everyone picks one card. Votes stay hidden until the host reveals them, so the loudest voice does not set the answer.

  4. 4

    Reveal and read the spread (30 sec)

    After the reveal everyone sees the count per card and each vote next to its display name. A team that is mostly Glad with two Sad votes needs a different conversation than one that is split three ways.

  5. 5

    Talk, starting with Mad (5 min)

    Invite each person who picked Mad to say what it was about, one at a time. Then Sad. Then ask the Glad voters what to protect, so the good parts survive the next sprint.

  6. 6

    Pick one action (2 min)

    Agree on a single change, name an owner, and write it in your own notes or tracker. ScrumMastr does not store action items, and one is plenty.

Tips that keep it useful

Keep the question narrow. Mad about the sprint gives you a conversation, mad about work in general gives you a sigh.
Do not hunt for who voted Mad. Ask the room what happened and let people volunteer.
Display names are free to choose and votes sit next to them after the reveal, so tell the team up front how names will be used.
Run a second round after the discussion if the first one was heavy. Seeing the Glad count rise is a good way to close.
Rotate formats every few sprints. The Start / Stop / Continue and Sailboat decks use the same vote-then-talk flow.

Why feelings first

Most retro formats jump straight to what should change. After a bad release or an unspoken conflict, that skips the thing everyone is thinking about. Mad sad glad flips the order: say how it felt, then decide what to do. A hidden vote makes that easier, because the first person to speak does not set the tone for everyone after them.

Keep reading

Ten minutes, one vote, one change. Free, no signup.

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