Post-Mortem Espresso Shot

Traditional retros can feel like heavy, drawn-out ceremonies—hours lost to endless debate and sprawling notes. What if reflection could be as quick and sharp as an espresso shot? Five minutes is all it takes to power your momentum without the drag.

Why Five Minutes Works

Reflection does not require an hour and a mirror of your soul. Five minutes is enough when you keep it tight. The point of a weekly retro is to catch what worked, name what stalled, and choose one change to try next. You are not writing literature. You are tuning a loop.

Use Proof to Jog Memory

Set a timer for five and open your proof log. Let the artifacts jog your memory.

What Worked

In one line, write what worked. Name the specific behavior that produced motion:

• “Priming the exact file let me start in under two minutes.”
• “Two outreach waves with a clear ask got replies within a day.”
• “Forty‑minute boxes made finish rates jump.”

Small truths compound because you can repeat them.

What Stalled

In one line, write what stalled you. Avoid blame. Look for friction you can remove:

• “Context switching between writing and code killed flow.”
• “I tried to ship bundles instead of slices.”
• “I waited for motivation and lost a day.”

Friction identified becomes design fodder for the next week.

Pick One Change

In one line, decide what you will try next. Pick one lever, one behavior, and a small experiment:

• “Pull feedback speed by sending three DMs after every ship.”
• “Pull finish rate by halving scope and ending sessions on time.”
• “Pull starts by staging files and setting a 4 p.m. ‘fifteen‑minute push’ alarm.”

The change should be visible in a day and measurable by Sunday.

Protect the Shortness

Stop when the timer ends. Do not turn the retro into a story. The shortness protects momentum. You leave with clarity, not with a second backlog. If you feel the urge to analyze, channel it into a single decision: what lever, what behavior, what experiment.

Running with Teams

Teams can run this retro together in ten minutes. Everyone posts one line for each prompt. No debate. One person collects the experiment to try. The following Sunday you check whether it helped. The rhythm builds a culture of small adjustments instead of grand fixes.

Rhyme Over Time

Over time, your retro lines will rhyme. That is a good sign. Rhyme means you have found core moves that work for you. Keep them. It also means you see recurring friction. Fix one at a time. The system gets smoother not because you think harder but because you remove rough edges.

Espresso, Not Essay

Five minutes is all you need. Espresso, not essay. Reflection fuels direction.

For those ready to dive deeper, advanced retro frameworks await in the next chapter—tools to sustain your momentum and retention without losing the speed and clarity you’ve built.