Purpose

ROTI (Return on Time Invested) is a quick closing activity where participants rate whether the meeting or sprint was worth their time on a 1–5 scale. It provides immediate, quantitative feedback on the perceived value of a session and helps facilitators improve future meetings. It is commonly used at the end of retrospectives, workshops, or any recurring team meeting.

At a glance

• Group size: 3–30 people
• Duration: 10 minutes
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Facilitation style: Structured
• Setting: Both / Remote-friendly

How to run

1. Explain the ROTI scale: 1 = waste of time, 2 = somewhat useful, 3 = neutral, 4 = good value, 5 = excellent value.
2. Each participant holds up fingers (1–5) or votes digitally (1 minute).
3. Record the scores on a board (1 minute).
4. Ask anyone who rated 1–2 what would have made it more valuable (5 minutes).
5. Note improvement ideas for the next session (3 minutes).

Materials needed

• Whiteboard or digital polling tool
• Timer

Pitfalls & common mistakes

• Not acting on low scores — if you collect feedback, you must respond to it.
• Only collecting the number without asking for qualitative input.
• Using it so frequently that people stop thinking about their rating.

Inclusion & accessibility

• Use anonymous digital voting if people feel pressured to rate high in front of leadership.
• Explain the scale clearly for participants unfamiliar with the ROTI concept.
• Keep it fast — the value is in the trend over time, not one data point.

Variations

• ROTI + One Thing: alongside the score, each person names one thing to change.
• Trend ROTI: track scores over multiple sprints and display the trend.
• Fist of Five: use a broader 0–5 scale with fist = 0.

When NOT to use this

• When the meeting was a one-off and the feedback cannot be applied.
• When detailed feedback is needed about specific agenda items — use Plus/Delta instead.

Source & further reading

• Agile facilitation community standard practice.
• Retromat (retromat.org).