The Starfish retrospective expands on simpler formats like Start Stop Continue by adding nuance through five distinct action categories. Instead of just “do it or don’t,” Starfish lets your team express “do more of this” or “do less of that”—capturing the gradations that make action planning more realistic.

Named for its five-pointed shape, this format is ideal for experienced teams ready for more sophisticated process improvement discussions.

What Is the Starfish Retrospective?

The Starfish retrospective organizes feedback into five action-oriented categories:

Category	Question	Action Type
Keep Doing	What’s working perfectly?	Maintain
Less Of	What should we reduce?	Decrease
More Of	What should we amplify?	Increase
Stop Doing	What should we eliminate?	Remove
Start Doing	What should we begin?	Add

Visually arranged like a five-pointed star, this format acknowledges that not everything is binary (do/don’t)—sometimes you just need to adjust the dial.

Why the Starfish Format Works

More Nuance Than Start Stop Continue

Start Stop Continue is great but has limitations:

Start Stop Continue	Starfish Equivalent
Start	Start Doing
Stop	Stop Doing
Continue	Keep Doing + More Of + Less Of

Starfish breaks “Continue” into three nuanced categories:

• Keep Doing — Perfect as-is, don’t change
• More Of — Good, but we want more
• Less Of — Has value, but we’re overdoing it

Action-Oriented

Every category directly maps to an action:

• Keep = Maintain current behavior
• More = Increase frequency/intensity
• Less = Decrease frequency/intensity
• Stop = Eliminate completely
• Start = Introduce new practice

Comprehensive Process Review

The five points ensure you consider:

• What to preserve
• What to scale up
• What to scale down
• What to remove
• What to add

The Five Points Explained

Keep Doing ✓ — What’s Working Perfectly

The Keep Doing category captures practices that are working well and shouldn’t change.

What belongs here:

• Established processes running smoothly
• Team practices that add value
• Things that would hurt if stopped
• Wins to protect

Examples:

• “Keep doing daily standups at 9:30 AM”
• “Keep doing code review before merge”
• “Keep doing sprint planning on Mondays”
• “Keep doing the weekly team lunch”
• “Keep doing retrospectives every sprint”

Key distinction: These items are at the right level—unlike “More Of” items which need amplification.

---

Less Of ↓ — What Should We Reduce?

The Less Of category identifies practices that have value but are happening too much.

What belongs here:

• Valuable activities done too frequently
• Good practices taken to excess
• Time-consuming activities with diminishing returns
• Over-engineering or over-processing

Examples:

• “Less of meetings—we have too many”
• “Less of documentation for small changes”
• “Less of perfectionism on internal tools”
• “Less of Slack interruptions during focus time”
• “Less of feature scope creep mid-sprint”

Key distinction: These aren’t bad—they’re just overdone. The team isn’t saying “stop meetings,” but “we need fewer meetings.”

---

More Of ↑ — What Should We Amplify?

The More Of category highlights practices that work well and should happen more often.

What belongs here:

• Effective practices done too infrequently
• Successful experiments to scale up
• Positive behaviors to encourage
• Resources that are insufficient

Examples:

• “More of pair programming—it’s valuable but rare”
• “More of cross-team collaboration”
• “More of automated testing coverage”
• “More of celebrating wins together”
• “More of direct communication with stakeholders”

Key distinction: These are already happening (unlike “Start Doing”)—they just need amplification.

---

Stop Doing ✗ — What Should We Eliminate?

The Stop Doing category identifies practices that should end completely.

What belongs here:

• Waste and inefficiency
• Practices causing harm
• Outdated processes
• Activities with no value

Examples:

• “Stop doing status meetings that duplicate standups”
• “Stop requiring approval for minor decisions”
• “Stop using the legacy deployment process”
• “Stop skipping retrospective action items”
• “Stop working weekends as a norm”

Key distinction: Complete elimination, not reduction. If something has some value, it belongs in “Less Of.”

---

Start Doing + — What Should We Begin?

The Start Doing category captures new practices to introduce.

What belongs here:

• New process suggestions
• Tools to try
• Practices from other teams
• Experiments to run

Examples:

• “Start doing async standups in Slack”
• “Start using feature flags for releases”
• “Start having sprint demos for stakeholders”
• “Start documenting architecture decisions”
• “Start rotating scrum master role”

Key distinction: These are net-new items, not amplifications of existing practices (which go in “More Of”).

When to Use the Starfish Retrospective

Situation	Why Starfish Works
Established teams	Ready for nuanced discussion
Process optimization	Five categories enable fine-tuning
After Start Stop Continue fatigue	Fresh format with more depth
When “Continue” feels too broad	Breaks it into Keep/More/Less
Action-focused teams	Every point maps to an action type

When to Choose Other Formats

• Brand new teams: Start with Start Stop Continue
• Emotional processing needed: Use Mad Sad Glad
• Visual/creative teams: Try Sailboat
• Very short retros: Use simpler two-column formats

How to Run a Starfish Retrospective

Before the Meeting

Preparation:

• Schedule 45-60 minutes
• Create board with five sections (star shape or columns)
• Label each point: Keep, Less, More, Stop, Start
• Review previous retrospective action items
• Prepare examples if team is new to format

Step-by-Step Facilitation

Step 1: Set the Stage (5 minutes)

Introduce the format and explain the five categories:

“Today we’re using the Starfish retrospective. Unlike Start Stop Continue, this format has five categories that let us be more specific about actions:

• Keep Doing — Working great, maintain as-is
• Less Of — Good but overdone, reduce it
• More Of — Good but insufficient, increase it
• Stop Doing — Not working, eliminate it
• Start Doing — New things to try

The key difference is nuance: ‘Less Of’ isn’t the same as ‘Stop,’ and ‘More Of’ isn’t the same as ‘Start.’”

Clarify distinctions before brainstorming—this prevents misplaced items.

Step 2: Individual Brainstorming (10 minutes)

Have team members add items silently:

• One idea per sticky note
• Aim for at least 1 item per category
• Brief phrases are fine

Facilitator tip: Call out each category: “Make sure you’ve at least one ‘Less Of’ item—what are we overdoing?”

💡 RetroFlow has a built-in Starfish template—completely free, no signup required.

Step 3: Share and Cluster (15 minutes)

Go through each category. Recommended order:

1. Keep Doing — Start positive
2. More Of — What good things to amplify
3. Less Of — What to dial back
4. Stop Doing — What to eliminate
5. Start Doing — New ideas

For each item:

• Author reads aloud
• Brief clarification (30 seconds)
• Group similar items
• Check placement: “Is this really ‘Stop’ or more of a ‘Less Of’?”

Step 4: Vote and Prioritize (5 minutes)

Give each person 5 votes to distribute:

• Can vote across all categories
• Multiple votes on one item allowed
• Vote on items you want to act on

Step 5: Discuss Top Items (10 minutes)

Focus on highest-voted items:

Questions to explore:

• Keep: “How do we ensure this continues?”
• Less: “What’s the right amount? How do we reduce?”
• More: “What would ‘more’ look like specifically?”
• Stop: “What’s blocking us from stopping this?”
• Start: “How do we experiment with this safely?”

Step 6: Create Action Items (10 minutes)

Convert discussions into 1-3 concrete actions:

Category	Item	Action	Owner
More Of	Pair programming	Schedule 3 sessions next sprint	Alex
Less Of	Meetings	Cancel weekly status sync; use async update	Sarah
Start	Feature flags	Add LaunchDarkly spike to backlog	Mike

Pro tip: Less Of and More Of items need specific targets—“less meetings” becomes “reduce from 8 to 5 meetings per week.”

Step 7: Close (5 minutes)

• Summarize action items and owners
• Thank participants
• Optional: “Which category had the most energy today?”

Starfish Retrospective Template

Star Shape Layout

                          KEEP DOING
                              ★
                             /|\
                            / | \
                           /  |  \
                          /   |   \
                         /    |    \
            LESS OF ★───────────────★ MORE OF
                         \    |    /
                          \   |   /
                           \  |  /
                            \ | /
                             \|/
                              ★
               STOP DOING ────┴──── START DOING

Column Layout (Alternative)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        STARFISH RETROSPECTIVE                               │
├──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬────────────────┤
│  KEEP DOING  │   LESS OF    │   MORE OF    │  STOP DOING  │  START DOING   │
│      ✓       │      ↓       │      ↑       │      ✗       │       +        │
│              │              │              │              │                │
│  Working     │  Reduce      │  Amplify     │  Eliminate   │  Introduce     │
│  perfectly   │  this        │  this        │  this        │  this          │
│              │              │              │              │                │
│              │              │              │              │                │
│              │              │              │              │                │
│              │              │              │              │                │
│              │              │              │              │                │
└──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴────────────────┘

ACTION ITEMS:
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Action                          │  Owner        │  Due Date               │
├──────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│                                  │               │                         │
│                                  │               │                         │
└──────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────────────────────┘

Sample Items for Each Category

Keep Doing

• Daily standups at consistent time
• Sprint reviews with stakeholders
• Code review requirement
• Clear sprint goals
• Blameless incident reviews

Less Of

• Context switching between projects
• Unnecessary documentation
• Meetings without clear agendas
• Scope creep mid-sprint
• Perfectionism on MVPs

More Of

• Pair programming
• Automated testing
• Cross-team knowledge sharing
• Customer feedback sessions
• Technical debt paydown

Stop Doing

• Manual deployment steps
• Skipping retro action items
• Working through lunch
• Duplicative status reporting
• Approvals for trivial changes

Start Doing

• Feature flags for releases
• Async standups option
• Architecture decision records
• Regular 1:1s with manager
• Team health checks

For discussion prompts that pair well with this format, see our retrospective questions guide.

Tips for Facilitating Starfish

Clarify Categories

The most common issue is items in wrong categories. Help the team:

If someone says…	Clarify with…
”Less meetings” (in Stop)	“Do we want zero meetings, or fewer? If fewer, that’s ‘Less Of’"
"More testing” (in Start)	“Are we doing any testing now? If yes, that’s ‘More Of’"
"Keep doing retros” (in More)	“Are retros at the right frequency, or do you want more frequent retros?”

Make Actions Specific

Vague Starfish items need quantification:

Vague	Specific
”Less meetings"	"Reduce from 8 to 5 weekly meetings"
"More pairing"	"3 pairing sessions per sprint minimum"
"Stop interruptions"	"No Slack during 9-11am focus time”

Balance the Star

If one category dominates, prompt for others:

• All “Stop”? Ask: “What’s working well that we should keep?”
• All “Keep”? Ask: “What would you change if you could?”
• Empty “Less Of”? Ask: “What are we overdoing?”

For Remote Teams

• Use digital whiteboard or RetroFlow
• Star shape works well visually
• Color-code categories
• Enable anonymous input for honesty

Common Starfish Variations

KALM (Keep, Add, Less, More)

Four categories instead of five—combines Stop into Less Of.

Start Stop Continue More Less

Five categories but different labels—same concept.

Starfish + Actions Row

Add a sixth section specifically for action items derived from each point.

Starfish vs Other Formats

Format	Categories	Best For
Starfish	Keep, Less, More, Stop, Start	Nuanced action planning
Start Stop Continue	Start, Stop, Continue	Simpler, faster retros
4Ls	Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For	Emotional + practical balance
DAKI	Drop, Add, Keep, Improve	Process improvement focus
Mad Sad Glad	Mad, Sad, Glad	Emotional processing

Related Formats

If you like Starfish, try:

• DAKI Retrospective — Drop, Add, Keep, Improve
• Start Stop Continue — Simpler three categories
• 4Ls Retrospective — Adds learning dimension

For visual alternatives:

• Sailboat — Wind, Anchor, Rocks
• Hot Air Balloon — Rising vs. weighing down

See all options in our sprint retrospective formats guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 5 categories in a Starfish retrospective?

The five Starfish categories are Keep (continue doing), More (do more of), Less (do less of), Stop (stop entirely), and Start (begin doing). This provides more nuance than three-category formats by distinguishing between “more” and “less” rather than just “good” and “bad.”

How is Starfish different from Start Stop Continue?

Starfish adds two extra categories — More and Less — which capture the gray area between keeping and stopping. Something might be good but you want more of it, or not terrible but you want less of it. This nuance leads to more specific action items.

When should you use the Starfish format?

Use Starfish when your team is comfortable with retrospectives and ready for more nuanced feedback. It works particularly well for mature teams that find Start Stop Continue too simplistic.

Run Starfish with RetroFlow

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Summary

The Starfish retrospective provides nuanced action planning through five categories:

• Keep Doing ✓ — Maintain what’s working perfectly
• Less Of ↓ — Reduce what’s overdone
• More Of ↑ — Amplify what’s insufficient
• Stop Doing ✗ — Eliminate what’s not working
• Start Doing + — Introduce new practices

It’s ideal for established teams ready to fine-tune their processes beyond simple start/stop decisions.

You Might Also Like

• Sprint Retrospective Formats Guide - 30+ formats
• Start Stop Continue - Simpler alternative
• Creating Effective Action Items - Turn insights into outcomes
• How to Facilitate a Retrospective - Facilitation tips