How do you apply lessons learned from previous projects to new ones?

When organizing a retrospective, consider: - What are the main goals of the retrospective (were there major issues? is the team new?) - What format is best for the team? (Size of group, functions, multiple smaller sessions) - Which tools should be used to promote inclusion (Miro has amazing templates) - Which style of retrospective should you run? (Start/Stop/Continue is a really great general format)

Secondary soft benefits to documenting and categorizing findings is: 1) creating ability to capture critical historical knowledge that isn't lost when a team member moves and 2) a means to show each team member that their input was heard and valued - both benefits supporting clarity, efficiency, and engagement in the next project's iteration.

In my experience, lessons learned is not a one time process. Over and over again, the process should be evaluated to ensure that the system is still working the way that it was designed or to accomplish the goal for the project. When reviewing the information at different intervals, you can determine new process failures and new develop new ways to overcome those failures. Key point is to Evaluate the process, Redesign the process, Monitor the process, then start over with Evaluating the process again.

Be sure to have a central repository of lessons learned for your organization. What will benefit your project will surely benefit other similar projects - so it is important to have your learnings in an transparent and digestible formate. Summarize your learnings in brief sentences and point to any examples where you plan to implement those learnings in future projects. This will also help you become a thought leader within your organization because you can help others learn from your experiences.

One thing I've found helpful to make sure lessons learned are incorporated into new projects is to build them in immediately into timelines and planning for my next project (if it's not written down, I'll forget about it). Having a dedicated POC and next step identified next to each learning also makes it easier to know exactly how to incorporate them into planning. At the beginning of project planning, I always have learnings from past projects up on one screen to use as a guide. I'll also sometimes set monthly reminders to myself to review learnings from past projects, which I've found very helpful for learnings that involve longer-term goals or strategy!

If a retrospective is across teams and has a possibility of being contentious, consider asking a neutral third party from your organization to run the retrospective session. This will help to set the stage for a safe space with a neutral facilitator, and your learnings will be stronger.