Spotify Health Check Retrospective: Moderation & Tips
Many teams use the Spotify Squad Health Check in retrospectives to identify early on where collaboration, value creation or technology are faltering. Here you will find the moderation guide with specific questions and templates for each Spotify dimension.
What Is the Spotify Health Check Model?
The Spotify Health Check creates visibility about the “health status” of your team. For this purpose, the team evaluates statements from different categories on a traffic light scale. A deep insight into the model can be found here . If you are interested in the organizational structure with Squads, Tribes, Chapters and Guilds, read the overview of the Agile Spotify Model .
How to use the Spotify Health Check in Retros
How to build the Health Check leanly into your Retrospective in:
- Before the retro, the team evaluates the Spotify items via a short survey.
- In the retro, you look together at the results (traffic light + trend).
- You prioritize the most critical dimensions and derive measures.
- Repeat after a few weeks to make progress visible.
For the pure method description you can additionally use the compact article on Spotify Health Check here; here you get the moderation-focused part.
If you prefer to see the content as a video, here is the compact overview and 6 tips:
The big advantages:
- Concrete items lower the inhibition threshold for honest feedback.
- Results are comparable over time and show trends.
- Teams can design retrospectives more independently and in a more goal-oriented way.
To ensure that the introduction is successful, a clear moderation guide helps – see the areas below.
Moderation Guide and Retro Templates
We bundle the Spotify items into four thematic retros plus one variant for all dimensions. This allows you to focus specifically and have enough time per topic.
You can answer the items either with a traffic light scale or with a Likert scale:
Spotify Health Check Retro: Team
Focus on collaboration, learning and support. Use the questions as conversation anchors and then decide which dimension you want to deepen.
🥳 Fun
🚥 Item
- We enjoy going to work and have a lot of fun working together.
💡 Moderation questions
What did you enjoy most about working?What was the most boring part of the job lately?How could we make the work more fun or less boring?
🙏 Support
🚥 Item
- We always get great support and help when we ask for it.
💡 Moderation questions
In what situations have we gotten stuck due to lack of support?What support have we given to others inside and outside the team?What could have helped us, but we didn’t ask for it?
🤝 Teamwork
🚥 Item
- We are a great team that works well together.
💡 Moderation questions
When did our collaboration last work particularly well?Where do we work past each other or block each other?How do we make blockers transparent so we can help each other faster?
💡 Learning
🚥 Item
- We are constantly learning many interesting things.
💡 Moderation questions
What type of task did we learn the most or least from?How much time do we take per week to learn?What knowledge should be spread more widely in our team?
Team Retrospective with Spotify Health Check: How the retro works
-
Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
-
Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
-
Health Check
All team members can answer the health checks anonymously on a scale. Then go through the results of the health checks together and record any additional comments if necessary. If you use the same health checks in several retrospectives, you can also track trends over time in Echometer.
- We enjoy going to work and have a lot of fun working together.
- We always get great support and help when we ask for it.
- We are a great team that works well together.
- We are constantly learning many interesting things.
-
Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
-
Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
-
Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
-
Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
-
Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
Team Retrospective with Spotify Health Check
Health Check Questions (Scale)
Spotify Health Check Retro: Organization
Ideal when it comes to mission, autonomy and freedom of choice.
🏁 Mission
🚥 Item
- We know exactly why we are here and can get excited about it.
💡 Moderation questions
Why are we here and does everyone agree?What questions about our common goals are still open?What makes our mission exciting and what is still missing to make it exciting for us?
♟ Pawn or player
🚥 Item
- We have our destiny in our own hands! We decide what we build and how we build it.
💡 Moderation questions
In what situation did we feel like a pawn in a chess game?What guidelines do we have or should we have to prevent that?
Organizational Retrospective with Spotify Health Check: How the retro works
-
Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
-
Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
-
Health Check
All team members can answer the health checks anonymously on a scale. Then go through the results of the health checks together and record any additional comments if necessary. If you use the same health checks in several retrospectives, you can also track trends over time in Echometer.
- We are in control of our own destiny! We decide what we build and how we build it.
- We know exactly why we are here and can get excited about it.
-
Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
-
Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
-
Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
-
Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
-
Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
Organizational Retrospective with Spotify Health Check
Health Check Questions (Scale)
Spotify Health Check Retro: Delivery
For teams that want to focus on delivery capability, processes, and stakeholder value.
🏎 Speed
🚥 Item
- We get things done really fast. No waiting, no delays.
💡 Moderation questions
Which of our topics have stalled during implementation? What were the main causes of delays? What is a current example of rapid implementation?
🤖 Suitable process
🚥 Item
- Our way of working suits us perfectly.
💡 Moderation questions
What bothers us about the way we work? When was the last time we changed the way we work? Which proposed change was never implemented and why?
🏅 Value
🚥 Item
- We deliver great results! We are proud of it and our stakeholders are very satisfied.
💡 Moderation questions
What makes our stakeholders particularly happy? Which topics have not delivered the hoped-for benefits and are there any patterns? What are our stakeholders most disappointed about right now?
Delivery Retrospective with Spotify Health Check: How the retro works
-
Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
-
Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
-
Health Check
All team members can answer the health checks anonymously on a scale. Then go through the results of the health checks together and record any additional comments if necessary. If you use the same health checks in several retrospectives, you can also track trends over time in Echometer.
- We get things done really fast. No waiting, no delays.
- Our way of working suits us perfectly.
- We deliver great results! We are proud of it and our stakeholders are very satisfied.
-
Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
-
Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
-
Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
-
Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
-
Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
Delivery Retrospective with Spotify Health Check
Health Check Questions (Scale)
Spotify Health Check Retro: Tech
Well suited if the focus should be on release flow and code quality.
⌨️ Tech quality
🚥 Item
- We are proud of the quality of our code! It is clean, easy to read, and has good test coverage.
💡 Moderation questions
Which aspects of our codebase are we particularly proud of? Which technical debts are potentially underestimated? How quickly did the newest team member become familiar with the codebase?
⚙️ Easy releasing
🚥 Item
- Releasing is easy, safe, painless, and largely automated.
💡 Moderation questions
When was the last time something went wrong during a release? What is currently the biggest pain point in our release process? Which improvement to our release process would we all welcome?
Tech Retrospective with Spotify Health Check: How the retro works
-
Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
-
Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
-
Health Check
All team members can answer the health checks anonymously on a scale. Then go through the results of the health checks together and record any additional comments if necessary. If you use the same health checks in several retrospectives, you can also track trends over time in Echometer.
- We are proud of the quality of our code! It is clean, easy to read, and has good test coverage.
- Releasing is easy, safe, painless, and largely automated.
-
Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
-
Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
-
Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
-
Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
-
Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
Tech Retrospective with Spotify Health Check
Health Check Questions (Scale)
Full Spotify Health Check
If you want to look at all 11 dimensions at once, plan enough time (90–120 minutes) and then consistently prioritize two to three areas for action.
Full Spotify Health Check: How the retro works
-
Random Icebreaker (2-5 minutes)
Echometer provides you with a generator for random check-in questions.
-
Review of open actions (2-5 minutes)
Before starting with new topics, you should talk about what has become of the measures from past retrospectives to check their effectiveness. Echometer automatically lists all open action items from past retros.
-
Health Check
All team members can answer the health checks anonymously on a scale. Then go through the results of the health checks together and record any additional comments if necessary. If you use the same health checks in several retrospectives, you can also track trends over time in Echometer.
- Value generation: We deliver great results. We are proud of this and our stakeholders are very satisfied.
- ... + 10 more
-
Discuss retro topics
Use the following open questions to collect your most important findings. First, everyone does it themselves, covered. Echometer allows you to reveal each column of the retro board individually in order to then present and group the feedback.
-
Catch-all question (Recommended)
So that other topics also have a place:
- What else would you like to talk about in the retro?
-
Prioritization / Voting (5 minutes)
On the retro board in Echometer, you can easily prioritize the feedback with voting. The voting is of course anonymous.
-
Define actions (10-20 minutes)
You can create a linked action via the plus symbol on a feedback. Not sure which measure would be the right one? Then open a whiteboard on the topic via the plus symbol instead to brainstorm root causes and possible measures.
-
Checkout / Closing (5 minutes)
Echometer enables you to collect anonymous feedback from the team on how helpful the retro was. This creates the ROTI score ("Return On Time Invested"), which you can track over time.
Full Spotify Health Check
Health Check Questions (Scale)
Tips for conducting the Spotify Health Check online
- Adapt model: Remove irrelevant dimensions and add missing aspects so that the check fits the team.
- Stay tuned: After two to three iterations, the items feel natural to the team – that’s when the best insights emerge.
- Avoid tool changes: Use a setup that maps survey, evaluation and retro in one go to save media breaks.
Try out the Spotify Team Health Check Tool directly now
With Echometer you can capture the health check, discuss the results in the retro and document measures – all in one tool.
- Send out survey: Create a team, select items and send the survey. Answers are anonymous and provide traffic light plus trend.
- Interactive online retro: As soon as answers are there, you start the retro and go live through results and food for thought.
- Record measures: Document comments and actions directly per item, including comparison to previous results.
- Automatic radar: The dashboard shows the history of all Spotify dimensions transparently at all times.
If you want to get started right away, click on one of the retro templates and start with the Spotify Team Health Check.
You will then receive a beautiful radar chart in Echometer to visualize the results of the Spotify Health Check:
We look forward to your experience reports on Echometer !
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