2025-01-08
Facilitating a retro when marketing blames product (and vice versa)
Retention retros stall when teams rehearse old wounds. Helena shares facilitation moves that keep the room forward-looking.
By Helena O’Donnell
Start with a shared timeline of customer-visible events, not internal milestones. Aligning on what customers experienced drains some defensiveness from the room.
Use silent sticky note collection before any verbal debate. Silent work captures quieter voices and reduces performative arguing.
When blame language appears, mirror it back as a systems question: "Which hand-off made that feel inevitable?" Systems framing keeps HR escalations rare.
Close with three tracked actions, each with a named owner and a date. Without owners, retros become theatre. With owners, they become the backbone of the Retention Retro for Product + Marketing course in practice.
Tagged: workshops, culture