Camilla Maia

Retrospective
Prep Flow

2022

Users weren't converting to their first retrospective. Support tickets and user interviews pointed to the same problem: the preparation flow was cognitively overwhelming and structurally unclear.

The hypotheses going in were cognitive overload, lack of clarity, and lack of motivation to continue. What made this project interesting was what we chose not to fix — and why that was the right call.

Overview
Company
Echometer
Year
2022
Methods
User interviews, usability testing, support ticket analysis
Credits
Research, Strategy, Design. Camilla Maia
Retro preparation
The Problem

Retro preparation
Retro preparation
The Approach

Mirror the prep experience to the retro itself.

The core insight was that users had no mental model of what a retrospective would look like — so the prep felt abstract and unmotivating. The fix was to make the prep visually mirror what they'd see during the actual retro.

We merged steps, simplified the survey presentation, and reframed each step around the outcome it produced — not the action it required.

Retro old start Retro new start
Retro new start
The Scope Decision

Part of the problem was out of scope. We shipped anyway.

Outcome

Conversion moved. Even without the full fix.

Matching Flow
Between Retro preparation and running retro
↓
Reduction in support tickets related to retro preparation confusion
Retro templates Retro preparation checkin Retro preparation survey
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