Software development teams traditionally use the retrospective ceremony to reflect on their results, performance and processes. But the software team retrospective can – and should – periodically focus on team-level concerns beyond these traditional themes.

In this talk, Kristen Foster-Marks will share her experience of leading a learning-themed retrospective, which encouraged her team to reflect on their personal beliefs about learning and up-skilling, their team’s learning culture, and the ways in which these beliefs and culture can both encourage and discourage engagement in on-the-job learning and up-skilling activities. Through this exercise, her team began to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their learning culture, as well as if, how and why they’re accumulating personal and team-wide learning debt.

Engineering leaders will walk away with vignettes around up-skilling challenges that she and her teammates have faced in their careers, as well as an overview of and access to a learning-themed retrospective template.