Retro Sailboat / Mad-Sad-Glad Board
Run a retrospective in Sailboat, Mad-Sad-Glad, or Start-Stop-Continue format. Switch between formats without losing a single card, dot-vote, then copy or print the finished board.
Built by the AbraCalc team
How to play
- Pick a format at the top — Sailboat, Mad-Sad-Glad, or Start-Stop-Continue — to set the zones.
- Add a card to any zone and use the dropdown on a card to move it to another zone.
- Click vote on a card to dot-vote it; votes add up instantly with no limit.
- Switch formats any time — matching zones carry cards over, the rest move to Parked so nothing is lost — then copy or print the board.
Not every team wants the same three columns every sprint, so this board offers three named retro formats you can switch between on the fly: Sailboat (Wind, Anchor, Rocks, Island), Mad-Sad-Glad, and Start-Stop-Continue. Add cards to any zone, dot-vote the ones that matter, and move a card to a different zone at any point in the discussion. Switching formats mid-retro is safe — cards in a zone that exists in both formats carry straight over, and anything else moves into a Parked zone instead of vanishing, so a facilitator can experiment with formats without any risk of losing what the team already wrote. When the retro wraps up, copy the board as plain text or print a clean copy for the room. Nothing typed here is uploaded or stored outside your own browser tab.
Frequently asked questions
- How is this different from the regular Retro Board tool?
- The regular Retro Board ships one fixed format: Went Well, To Improve, and Action Items. This tool instead offers three alternate, named retro formats — Sailboat, Mad-Sad-Glad, and Start-Stop-Continue — that you can switch between on the same board.
- What happens to my cards if I switch formats mid-retro?
- Cards in a zone that shares an id with a zone in the new format carry over automatically. Every other card moves into a Parked zone rather than being deleted, so a format switch never loses a single card.
- Can I still vote and move cards after switching formats?
- Yes. Voting, moving cards between zones, and deleting cards all work exactly the same after a switch as before it, and every vote click registers immediately with no cooldown.