Purpose

The Team Radar Retrospective provides a visual, multi-axis assessment of team health. The team defines 5–8 dimensions of performance (e.g., collaboration, technical excellence, delivery speed, psychological safety) and each member rates them. The resulting radar chart instantly highlights strengths and improvement areas, making it an excellent tool for longitudinal team development.

At a glance

• Group size: 4–12 people
• Duration: 30 minutes
• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Facilitation style: Structured
• Setting: Both / Remote-friendly

How to run

1. Agree on 5–8 dimensions to assess (first time: brainstorm together; subsequent runs: reuse previous axes for comparability) (5 minutes).
2. Each member silently rates each dimension on a 1–5 scale (3 minutes).
3. Collect scores and plot the team average on a radar/spider chart (2 minutes).
4. Walk through each axis: celebrate highs, discuss lows, note biggest divergences in individual scores (12 minutes).
5. Pick the 1–2 lowest-scoring axes and define improvement experiments with owners and timelines (8 minutes).

Materials needed

• Pre-printed radar chart or digital tool (Miro, Parabol, TeamRetro)
• Voting mechanism (paper slips, digital poll)
• Markers
• Timer

Pitfalls & common mistakes

• Choosing too many dimensions — keep to 5–8 for a focused discussion.
• Averaging away important outliers — if one person rates an axis at 1 while others say 4, investigate.
• Running the same dimensions every time without updating them as the team matures.

Inclusion & accessibility

• Allow anonymous scoring so team members are not influenced by hierarchy.
• Provide clear definitions for each axis to ensure everyone rates on the same basis.
• Use screen-reader-friendly digital tools for visually impaired participants.

Variations

• Spotify Health Check: use the Spotify Squad Health Check model with predefined dimensions and traffic-light scoring.
• Before/After Radar: rate where the team was at sprint start vs. sprint end.
• Aspiration Radar: add a second ring showing where the team wants to be in 3 months.

When NOT to use this

• When the team needs a quick, lightweight check-in — use a temperature reading or one-word retro.
• When the team has never done a retro before — start with a simpler format like Start Stop Continue.

Source & further reading

• Spotify Squad Health Check (Spotify Engineering Blog).
• Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby & Diana Larsen.