Start, Stop, Continue: How to implement this retrospective model

To make meaningful progress, you often have to look backward before you can start thinking ahead. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of methods for self-reflection and self-improvement when you finish a project, but few are more straightforward than the Start, Stop, Continue model.

The Start, Stop, Continue retrospective model is a simple and effective framework for personal and professional development. With a clear structure for growth, it lets you and your whole team reflect on your efforts from a project or initiative and brainstorm techniques to improve in the future. And when you’re ready to learn more about yourself outside of work, you can use it for personal reflection too.

Here’s what the method includes, how to implement it, and more about its benefits.

What’s Start, Stop, Continue?

The Start, Stop, Continue exercise is a three-part retrospective, or process, that gives you a framework for reflection. It determines what you should start doing, what you should stop doing, and what you should continue to do for future initiatives. 

Great leaders know success isn’t an end state — it’s an iterative process. Each step in the process asks open-ended questions that help you think of ways to create a better workflow or improve team cohesion. This could come in the form of an employee feedback survey, a solo journaling session, or a post-project meeting.

Compared to close-ended questions and numerical rating systems, studies show that the Start, Stop, Continue method is a valuable alternative that results in real-world changes. Academics and educators often use Start, Stop, Continue to collect student feedback and improve the quality of instruction. 

Start, Stop, Continue template

An impactful retrospective requires insightful questions, active listening, and an open mind. And when things don’t go as planned during a project or new organizational practice, open-ended questions can help you learn from that failure. Even if the project was a success, your team’s answers provide clear pathways to growth.

Here are some Start, Stop, Continue example questions for each section to get the conversation started:

Start

These questions address specific actions that could improve the current process — in other words, what you should start doing that you aren’t already. Suggestions may include tangible resources, such as software, tools, and quality control measures you should implement, or conceptual ones, such as communication styles or decision-making structures that need a boost. 

Try these sample questions for the Start segment of a Start, Stop, Continue exercise:

1. How would you streamline this process?

2. Which challenges did the team fail to account for?

3. What skills, opportunities, or tactics are you not fully leveraging?

4. What do you need to increase the scale of the operation?

Stop

This is the time to find out what needs to go. It may be tough to hear criticism, but constructive feedback is the best way to improve work performance both for you and your team. Be sure to encourage a supportive and diplomatic atmosphere during these conversations. It isn’t the time to point fingers or blame others if something went wrong. 

These organizational and self-evaluation questions will reveal what’s having a negative impact:

1. What made your job harder or wasted your time?

2. What errors or snags do you keep repeating?

3. Which elements of the workflow require the most effort for the least payoff?

4. Are there any initiatives that aren’t serving larger organizational goals?

Continue

This section of the Start, Stop, Continue process is all about the things you’re already doing right. And after hearing some harsh truths, ending on a positive note can improve morale and let everyone celebrate successes. If a response mentions an element you haven’t yet cemented as a core part of your workflow, this is a sign to make it a permanent fixture. 

Ask these questions to learn what your or your team’s strengths are and double down on those practices:

1. What strategies and tactics made the process easier? In what ways?

2. Which goals are you consistently achieving?

3. What aspects of the workflow are indispensable?

4. Who stepped up when things got tough?

When and why you should use Start, Stop, Continue

The main goal of this retrospective is to make your next project or initiative run more smoothly. Studies have shown that formalized feedback and goal-setting practices increase worker productivity and performance, and Start, Stop, Continue is just one way to accomplish that.

Like most feedback models, it’s best to apply this method right after you complete a project or reach a milestone. Setting a meeting date sooner rather than later ensures the triumphs and struggles of the process are fresh on your team’s minds. And once you discuss those important points, you can implement changes faster.

Start, Stop, Continue is most valuable:

• After you deliver a project

• When an initiative fails or succeeds

• At the end of the year, either calendar or fiscal 

• When you feel stagnant 

• After a sprint in an Agile workflow

• During performance reviews

After you put a challenging project to bed, you might be tempted to move on and forget the stress, especially if it didn’t go well. Although you should take time to pat yourself on the back — rewarding yourself is crucial — skipping a rigorous review robs you and your team of the chance to learn and grow.

How to run a Start, Stop, Continue exercise

Retrospectives let you and the people you work with open up about the setbacks they faced and explain solutions they’d like to implement in depth. These tips will make your Start, Stop, Continue session a success:

1. Set clear expectations

Before jumping into a team meeting, ensure everyone is on the same page about what it’ll look like. Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish, then make that aim explicit. Preface the team exercise with a refresher on your organization’s goals and a summary of recent outcomes and results.

Encourage everyone to do some personal reflection and prep work beforehand so you don’t miss out on any ideas. Invite participants well ahead of time and include an outline of the structure and subject matter. This gives them the space they need to think of suggestions.

2. Provide a visual aid

Once you gather everyone together, give them something to look at and pay attention to. A visual aid, such as a whiteboard, sticky notes, or a shared spreadsheet, helps organize their ideas and relate them to one another. And if you include a presentation as part of your reflection process, try making it interactive.

3. Stay on track

Careful moderation will ensure your retrospective remains focused and productive. Invite those with the most knowledge and investment in your evaluation target: they’ll know the most about how to foster actionable results. Set timers for individual and group brainstorming sessions, and center the discussion on providing helpful types of feedback.

4. Record responses

Without a record of your team’s suggestions, a retrospective is just a vent session. Assign someone to take detailed notes that you can review and synthesize into an action plan. Your notetaker should be someone who ideally isn’t contributing to the discussion so they can focus on writing down every point. 

5. Analyze feedback and create a plan of action

After you’ve gathered input, look for common themes and find ways to work them into your next project. The results of a Start, Stop, Continue analysis lay an ideal foundation for SMART goals and other strategies that bring ideas to life. And studies show teams who participate in the goal-setting process are more likely to experience productive flow states, so this process will improve workflows all around.

Examples of Start, Stop, Continue results

The Start, Stop, Continue framework can help you reach a wide range of personal and professional goals, from being more efficient to reworking your budget. 

Here are some examples of the responses a Start, Stop, Continue session might produce:

Optimizing workflow

Efficiency doesn’t happen spontaneously: it requires participation from the entire team. If you’re seeking out constructive criticism on your organization’s workflow, these are some of the responses you might see:

Start

• Implementing a shared digital workspace to track progress on deliverables
• Performing weekly 1:1 check-ins between developers and management
• Standardizing the format of product feedback

Stop

• Submitting feedback after work is finalized
• Promising new features without dev approval
• Scheduling meetings on crunch days

Continue

• Sharing UX research and feedback
• Evenly distributing work across teams
• Providing quotas, benchmarks, and long-term goal progression at the beginning of the month

Increasing team morale

A satisfied team is more than just productive. Happiness aids personal well-being, success, and healthy habits, all of which can contribute to a better workplace. If you ask your team how to increase their morale, you might receive requests like these:

Start

• Celebrating personal milestones, anniversaries, and birthdays
• Including all team members in decision-making
• Recognizing high achievement alongside areas for improvement

Stop

• Micromanaging
• Dropping extra work on employees on Fridays
• Publicly criticizing team members for their mistakes

Continue

• Being flexible about working hours
• Prioritizing work-life balance
• Acknowledging the impact of mental health on the team’s performance

Overcoming procrastination

Start, Stop, Continue feedback isn’t just for the office. You can also benefit from it on an individual level, whether you want to improve your work habits or become more disciplined. To reach personal goals, try evaluating yourself with the framework. If you want to be more productive, a personal retrospective may look something like this:

Start

• Setting up a standardized reward system for completing tasks
• Working on a task as soon as it’s assigned
• Keeping your phone in a different room during work hours

Stop

• Distracting your coworkers with idle conversation
• Using social media during work hours
• Telling yourself you can finish a task tomorrow if you wake up early

Continue

• Keeping an updated to-do list
• Sharing your goals with others to increase accountability
• Using the Pomodoro Technique

Great leaders seek out honest feedback

The Start, Stop, Continue retrospective template is invaluable for collecting upward feedback from your team and fueling future growth. Applying it may seem simple, but it requires strong leadership and communication skills.

Structured evaluation methods like this encourage you to hone your soft skills as you take feedback and think creatively about how to apply it. They also test your problem-solving and decision-making skills, asking you to interpret subjective responses into actionable goals. Start, Stop, Continue is a vital tool that you can use in all parts of your life — not just professional.

Whether you want to improve your next project or work on a personal goal, this method can help you get there.