Plus, Minus, Interesting Retrospective

Plus, Minus, Interesting retrospective

PMI is a three-column retrospective built on a simple observation: most sprints aren't purely good or bad. They're a mix of things that worked, things that didn't, and things that are simply worth examining more closely.

The Plus and Minus columns do what most retrospectives already do. The Interesting column is what makes PMI different. It gives the team somewhere to put observations that don't fit neatly into the positive/negative binary: unexpected findings, patterns that emerged, questions that formed, things that worked in surprising ways. That third column often produces the most generative conversations in the session.

The framework was originally developed by Edward de Bono as a lateral thinking tool. It translates naturally to sprint retrospectives because agile teams are always navigating the same tension: consolidating what works while adapting to what doesn't.

When to choose PMI

• When you want genuine balance. Some formats treat "what went well" as a warm-up before getting to the real issues. PMI treats Plus and Minus as equal priorities from the start.
• For mixed or cross-functional groups. Three clearly labelled columns are immediately intuitive. PMI needs almost no setup explanation; just open the board.
• After a sprint with new experiments. The Interesting column is particularly valuable when the team tried something new: a different deployment approach, a new ceremony, a technical spike. It captures learning that doesn't resolve cleanly into "that worked" or "that didn't."
• When the team is mid-project. PMI's balance between what to preserve and what to change makes it strong at project midpoints, not just sprint endings.
• For teams prone to dwelling on problems. The explicit Plus column creates a commitment to naming what went well. Without it, some teams, especially under delivery pressure, spend all their time in the Minus pile.

Warm up: what stood out?

Before the board opens, ground the team in the sprint that just ended.

Ask: "What's one moment from this sprint that stuck with you, for any reason?"

Use TeleRetro's AI Icebreaker Bot for something more specific to your team's recent context.

Then:

1. Start icebreaker music to signal the shift into reflection mode.
2. Switch on anonymous brainstorming mode so everyone writes simultaneously and privately.
3. Open all three columns at once and let people add cards wherever they belong rather than working through one column at a time.

Give the team 10 minutes. Don't rush the brainstorm; the Interesting column in particular takes a moment to settle into.

✅ Plus

What worked well this sprint?

Plus is more than a morale boost; it's a record of what to protect. Teams often change things that are working because they're in the habit of changing things, not because there's evidence they're broken. Naming specific successes helps the team be deliberate about what to preserve.

Push for specificity. "Good collaboration" is too thin. "The pairing sessions on the payments refactor moved that ticket three times faster than we expected" is something the team can actually replicate.

⛔️ Minus

What didn't work, caused friction, or slowed the team down?

This column isn't about blame; it's about identifying what's getting in the way. Bugs, slow processes, unclear requirements, interpersonal tension, meetings that consumed more time than they delivered: they all belong here.

The more precisely a problem is identified, the more likely it produces a useful action item. "Communication" is a problem category. "The ticket acceptance criteria weren't agreed before development started, which caused two back-and-forth cycles with QA" is a problem worth solving.

Use anonymous brainstorming mode here. Teams are more honest about what isn't working when they write without an audience.

💡 Interesting

What observations, patterns, or questions are worth examining?

Interesting is the most underused column in PMI, and the most distinctive. It creates space for things that don't resolve cleanly:

• A tool that worked well in one context but poorly in another
• A dynamic between two team members that surprised you
• A process that felt inefficient but you're not sure why
• Something that succeeded this sprint that the team has never consciously tried before
• A stakeholder reaction you didn't predict

Not every Interesting card needs an action item. Some just need acknowledgment: "yes, we noticed that too," or a short discussion that plants a seed for next sprint.

🚀 Next steps (optional)

What are our concrete commitments from this retrospective?

Not all teams use this fourth column, but it's worth adding when the team tends to have good discussions but weak follow-through. Moving action items into an explicit column, rather than a sidebar or chat log, keeps them visible throughout the session.

Use TeleRetro's action item tracking to carry commitments forward to the following retrospective.

Facilitating the discussion

After brainstorming and voting, a reasonable time split for a 60-minute session:

• Plus: 10 minutes (celebrate specifically; brevity is fine here)
• Minus: 25 minutes (most action items come from here)
• Interesting: 15 minutes (don't skip this; it's often where fresh thinking lives)
• Next steps: 10 minutes

When discussing Minus cards, resist jumping straight to solutions. Spend a minute on the cause before the fix. Two or three superficially different Minus cards often share the same root cause, and one action item can resolve all of them.

For Interesting cards, the facilitator's job is to help the team decide: does this need an action, more watching, or just acknowledgment? Not everything needs to become a task.

Variations

PMI with a theme. If the sprint had a defining event, a major release, a production incident, a team change: add a framing before the brainstorm: "Today, let's look at everything through the lens of how we handled the release." It focuses the Interesting column especially.

PMI for project retrospectives. At the end of a project rather than a sprint, extend the time and use Interesting to capture institutional knowledge: things the team learned that don't appear in any ticket or document.

PMI + Pulse Surveys. Run a Pulse Survey mid-sprint and use the results to pre-seed the Interesting column before the retro. It grounds the conversation in data and often surfaces observations teams wouldn't have thought to add themselves.

Related formats

• Start, Stop, Continue: When you want direct action language rather than evaluative framing.
• 4 Ls: Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For. The Learned column serves a similar function to Interesting for teams where learning is a central priority.
• Mad Sad Glad: When emotion is the primary lens and you want to surface feeling before analysis.
• DAKI: When the team wants to go straight to action verbs without the reflective phase.

All formats are available on every TeleRetro plan. See pricing for details.

Start a Plus Minus Interesting Retro View all retro templates

---

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Plus Minus Interesting (PMI) retrospective?

Plus Minus Interesting, often written as PMI, is a three-column retrospective format. Plus captures what went well, Minus surfaces what didn't, and Interesting holds observations that don't fit neatly into either category: unexpected findings, patterns worth noting, or questions worth exploring further. The Interesting column is what makes PMI distinctive. It creates space for nuance and curiosity that pure positive/negative formats miss.

When should you use the PMI retrospective?

PMI works well when the team wants a balanced retrospective that gives equal weight to positives and negatives, when you're running a retro with a mixed or cross-functional group who need an immediately intuitive format, or when the team is mid-project and needs to capture what's worth preserving as much as what needs fixing. The Interesting column makes PMI particularly strong after a sprint with a lot of experimentation or new work, where observations that don't resolve cleanly deserve their own space.

How do you run a PMI retrospective?

1. Set up: open the three columns and switch on anonymous brainstorming mode.
2. Brainstorm: give the team 10 minutes to add cards to all three columns simultaneously. Encourage specificity.
3. Group: cluster similar cards to find themes across each column.
4. Vote: use the voting feature to prioritise the themes worth discussing.
5. Discuss and act: work through the highest-voted themes. Aim for at least one action item per significant Minus. For Interesting cards, decide whether they need an action, further watching, or just acknowledgment.
6. Close: review action items, assign owners, and end on something from the Plus column.

What is the Interesting column for?

The Interesting column holds observations that are neither clearly good nor bad; they are simply worth noting. A change in team dynamics. An unexpected finding during a technical spike. A process that worked differently than expected. Something that succeeded in one context but failed in another. This column prevents nuanced observations from being forced into a positive/negative binary, and it often produces the most generative discussions of the session.

What are some alternatives to the PMI retrospective?

If you want a similar balance but different framing, consider:

• Start, Stop, Continue: action-first language; less reflective, more prescriptive
• Mad Sad Glad: emotions-first format that surfaces observations through feeling rather than analysis
• 4 Ls: Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For; strong for learning-oriented teams where the Learned column serves a similar function to Interesting
• DAKI: Drop, Add, Keep, Improve; sharper action language for teams that want direct commitments over nuanced reflection