What, So What, Now What? (30m)
Liberating structure
2 minutes to read
Last Updated: Wed 25 Oct 2023 11:15
Purpose
Together, Look Back on Progress to Date and Decide What Adjustments Are Needed
Invitation
Round 1: “What have you seen, heard or observed during the Shift & Share? What facts or patterns stood out the most?” Round 2: “So, what does this mean to our work together in this and future Sprints?” Round 3: “Now, what adaptions to the Product Backlog or our release plan make sense? What needs to be added, removed or re-ordered?”;
Steps
- (2 min) Introduce the steps and purpose of ‘What, So What, Now What’;
- (6 min) Form groups of 4:
- Introduce the invitation: “What have you seen, heard or observed? What stood out the most?”;
- (1 min) Individually and in silence, invite everyone to reflect on the invitation and write down whatever comes to mind for them;
- (5 min) In their group, people share their responses and work together to identify patterns. If people jump to interpretations (round #2) or conclusions (round #3) gently bring them back the purpose of round #1 by asking: “What did you notice that makes you say that?”;
- (2 min) Groups share unique salient observations with the entire group.
- (6 min) Within the groups of 4:
- Introduce the invitation: “So, what does this mean to our work together in this and future Sprints?”;
- (1 min) Individually and in silence, invite everyone to reflect on the invitation and write down whatever comes to mind for them;
- (5 min) In their group, people share their responses and work together to identify patterns;
- (6 min) Within the groups of 4:
- Introduce the invitation: “Now, what adaptions to the Product Backlog or our release plan make sense? What needs to be added, removed or re-ordered?”;
- (1 min) Individually and in silence, invite everyone to reflect on the invitation and write down whatever comes to mind for them;
- (5 min) In their group, people share their responses and work together to identify patterns;
- (10 min) Invite the groups to share their most important conclusions and collect them somewhere (e.g. on a flip). Prevent this from turning into a large-group discussion by inviting everyone to focus on sharing and listening;