Rose, Bud, Thorn retrospective

🌹 Rose
🌱 Bud
🥀 Thorn

What is a Rose, Bud, Thorn retrospective?

Rose, Bud, Thorn is a simple reflection exercise borrowed from design thinking. Each person looks back over a sprint, project or week and shares three things:

🌹 Rose: something that went well, a highlight or a win.
🌱 Bud: an opportunity, a new idea or something they're looking forward to.
🥀 Thorn: something that was difficult, frustrating or got in the way.

The Rose, Bud, Thorn retrospective draws inspiration from the life stages of a rose, offering a unique and reflective framework to assess past activities, current projects, and future prospects. It works because it's balanced. The team celebrates what worked, names what hurt and spots what could grow next, all in one session. That makes it a great choice when a team is tired of the same old format, or when you want a gentle retro that still leads to action.

When should you use Rose, Bud, Thorn?

Rose, Bud, Thorn works for almost any team, but it shines when:

You've finished a project or milestone and want to look back and forward at the same time.
Your team is new. The three prompts are easy to understand, so nobody needs a format explained twice.
Morale is mixed. Starting with roses gives people permission to celebrate before tackling problems.
Retros feel stale. The plant theme is a small change that makes the session feel fresh.
You need a quick check-in. It scales down to a 15-minute round at the start of a weekly meeting.

The three columns

🌹 Rose: what went well?

Roses are the wins, big or small. A feature that shipped smoothly, a tricky conversation that went well, or a colleague who went out of their way to help. Take time here. Teams that skip their roses often forget what's worth protecting.

Prompt questions:

What are you proud of from this sprint?
What was the highlight of your week?
What worked better than you expected?
Who helped you, and how?

🌱 Bud: what could grow?

Buds are opportunities. They haven't bloomed yet, but with some care they could turn into something great. A bud might be a new idea, an experiment worth trying, a skill someone is learning or upcoming work the team is excited about.

Prompt questions:

What idea would you like the team to try?
What are you looking forward to next sprint?
Where do you see an opportunity we're not taking?
What small change could make a big difference?

🥀 Thorn: what was difficult?

Thorns are the problems, blockers and frustrations. Anything that slowed the team down or didn't go the way you hoped. Thorns are about the work and the process, never about blaming a person.

Prompt questions:

What got in your way this sprint?
What was more painful than it needed to be?
Where did we lose time?
What worried you?

💦 Water (optional)

Shower praise to acknowledge and nurture the team's hard work and contributions. Adding a fourth column for shout-outs is a lovely way to close the session.

How do you run a Rose, Bud, Thorn retrospective?

Here's a 45 to 60 minute plan for a team of 5 to 15.

Warm up (5 minutes). Kick off the session with a soothing or invigorating playlist that resonates with the theme of growth and reflection. Try some icebreaker music and a mood check-in to read the room, or open with a light question from our funny icebreaker questions.
Brainstorm (8 to 10 minutes). Everyone adds cards to the three columns on their own. Keep cards anonymous during brainstorming so people feel safe naming thorns honestly.
Share and group (10 to 15 minutes). Reveal the board and read through the roses first. Then group similar buds and thorns so the themes stand out.
Vote (5 minutes). Ask the team to vote on the buds and thorns that matter most.
Discuss and decide (15 to 20 minutes). Talk through the top-voted items. For each thorn, ask "what would help?". For each bud, ask "what's the smallest step we could take?".
Agree actions (5 minutes). Turn the best ideas into two or three actions and assign an owner to each.

When you're done, export the retro summary so everyone can see what was agreed.

Rose, Bud, Thorn examples

Stuck for ideas? Here are examples for different situations. Share them with your team before the retro to help people get started.

Sprint retrospective examples

🌹 Rose: We hit our sprint goal for the first time in three sprints.
🌹 Rose: The new pull request template made reviews much faster.
🌱 Bud: Pairing on tricky tickets could help spread knowledge across the team.
🌱 Bud: We could try a mid-sprint check-in to spot blockers earlier.
🥀 Thorn: The staging environment was down twice and blocked testing.
🥀 Thorn: Too many tickets were added after the sprint started.

Project or launch examples

🌹 Rose: The launch went live on time and the support team felt prepared.
🌹 Rose: Design and engineering worked closely from day one.
🌱 Bud: Early customer feedback suggests a feature we hadn't planned for.
🌱 Bud: The launch checklist we built could be reused for every release.
🥀 Thorn: Requirements changed late, which caused rework.
🥀 Thorn: We didn't have a clear owner for release communications.

Team and ways of working examples

🌹 Rose: Our new team member settled in quickly thanks to great onboarding.
🌹 Rose: Stand-ups got shorter and more focused.
🌱 Bud: A shared team calendar could cut down on scheduling clashes.
🌱 Bud: Some of us are keen to run a lunch-and-learn session.
🥀 Thorn: Decisions made in chat got lost and had to be made again.
🥀 Thorn: Time zone differences made it hard to find meeting slots.

Personal check-in examples

🌹 Rose: I finally finished the course I started months ago.
🌱 Bud: I'm looking forward to leading my first workshop next month.
🥀 Thorn: I struggled to switch off after work this week.

What are examples of buds (opportunities)?

Buds are often the hardest column to fill, because people are better at spotting what went well or badly than what could happen next. Here are some examples of opportunities teams often raise:

Process opportunities: automating a manual step, trying a new retro format, shortening a meeting.
Learning opportunities: a skill someone wants to build, a new tool worth exploring, a knowledge-sharing session.
Product opportunities: a customer request that keeps coming up, a quick win found during testing, a feature idea.
Team opportunities: mentoring a new starter, a team social, working more closely with another team.
Personal opportunities: taking on a new responsibility, presenting at a company meeting, leading a project.

If the Bud column is empty, ask: "If we had one free day next sprint, what would we do with it?"

Tips for a better Rose, Bud, Thorn retro

Start with roses. Beginning on a positive note makes it easier to talk about thorns honestly.
Balance the columns. If every card is a thorn, the team may need a format that deals with feelings first, like Mad, Sad, Glad.
Connect thorns and buds. Many thorns have a bud hiding inside them. "Staging keeps breaking" might pair with "we could add a staging health check".
Keep actions small. Two or three actions the team actually finishes beat a long list nobody owns.
Check back next time. Start your next retro by reviewing last time's actions, so buds actually get the chance to bloom.

Want to keep track of how the team is feeling between retros? Pulse Surveys let you check team health in between sessions.

Embrace this retrospective as a chance to reflect, celebrate growth, address challenges, and nurture potential, allowing your team to flourish like a well-tended garden.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Rose, Bud, Thorn?

Rose, Bud, Thorn is a reflection exercise from design thinking. People share a rose (something that went well), a bud (an opportunity or something they're looking forward to) and a thorn (something that was difficult). Agile teams use it as a retrospective format because it balances celebration, problems and ideas in one simple session.

What does the bud mean in Rose, Bud, Thorn?

The bud is an opportunity. It's something that hasn't happened yet but could grow into something good, like a new idea, a process worth trying, a skill someone is building or an upcoming piece of work the team is excited about.

What are examples of rose, bud and thorn?

For a sprint retro:

Rose: we shipped the new onboarding flow with zero bugs reported
Bud: pairing on code reviews could spread knowledge and speed up reviews
Thorn: the staging environment went down twice and blocked testing

How long does a Rose, Bud, Thorn retrospective take?

For a team of 5 to 15, plan for 45 to 60 minutes. A lighter version, where each person shares one rose, one bud and one thorn out loud, can be done in 15 minutes as a check-in.

Is it Rose, Bud, Thorn or Rose, Thorn, Bud?

Both orders are used and the exercise is the same. Some facilitators prefer Rose, Thorn, Bud so the session ends on opportunities, which leaves the team looking forward rather than dwelling on problems.

What are good alternatives to Rose, Bud, Thorn?

Try these formats if you want a change:

WWW (Worked Well, Kinda Worked, Didn't Work) for an even simpler reflection
Start, Stop, Continue when you want clear actions
4 Ls when you want to focus on learning
Gardening if your team enjoys the plant theme

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