Purpose

The Traffic Lights Retrospective uses the universally understood red/yellow/green signal to categorize team practices and experiences. Red means stop or fix urgently, yellow means caution or needs attention, and green means keep going. Its simplicity makes it fast to run and easy to understand, even for teams new to retrospectives.

At a glance

• Group size: 3–15 people
• Duration: 15 minutes
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Facilitation style: Structured
• Setting: Both / Remote-friendly

How to run

1. Create three zones: Red (stop/fix), Yellow (caution/watch), Green (keep/celebrate).
2. Silent brainstorming: participants write sticky notes and assign a colour (3 minutes).
3. Place notes in the appropriate zone and share briefly (5 minutes).
4. Focus discussion on Red items first (4 minutes).
5. Agree on actions for the top Red and Yellow items (3 minutes).

Materials needed

• Whiteboard or digital board
• Sticky notes in red, yellow, and green
• Markers
• Timer

Pitfalls & common mistakes

• Everything landing in Green because the team avoids conflict — encourage honest assessment.
• Ignoring Yellow items because Red gets all the attention — Yellow items often escalate if unaddressed.
• Not celebrating Green items, which reinforces good practices.

Inclusion & accessibility

• For colour-blind participants, label zones with text and symbols in addition to colour.
• The traffic light metaphor is globally recognized.
• Allow anonymous Red contributions for sensitive issues.

Variations

• Traffic Light Dashboard: track red/yellow/green ratios over multiple sprints.
• Personal Traffic Lights: each person rates their personal experience before discussing team-wide.
• Traffic Light + Action: add a fourth zone for specific improvement actions.

When NOT to use this

• When the team needs a more nuanced framework with more than three categories.
• When detailed root-cause analysis is needed.

Source & further reading

• Common facilitation and project management technique.
• Retromat (retromat.org).