Hot Air Balloon Retrospective Template: Lift, Sandbags, Storms and a Destination

The hot air balloon retrospective pictures the team as a balloon. What lifts us up is the hot air that keeps you rising. What weighs us down is the sandbags: load you carry. Storms ahead are trouble you can see coming, and where we want to go is the destination. The format's real question is about load: what are we carrying that we could drop?

The four columns

Sandbags are a choice. Balloonists climb by dropping ballast. Most of what weighs a team down was picked up on purpose once: a promise to one customer, a weekly report, a side project. Ask of each one: what if we dropped it?

Where it comes from. Nobody is credited with inventing it. It was already in use by January 2009, when Sarah Taraporewalla wrote about it as the best retrospective game she had seen, with fire lifting the balloon and sandbags slowing the team down. Later versions added the storms and the destination; nobody is credited with those either.

When to use it (and when not to)

Use it when:

• the team feels heavy: too many things in progress, too many side commitments
• you're starting a new quarter and want to choose what not to carry into it
• energy is dropping and you want to know what still gives people a lift

Balloon, Sailboat or Speed Car? All three have forces for and against. Pick the balloon when the problem is load and energy. Pick Sailboat when you have a clear project goal and the risks on the way matter most. Pick Speed Car when the topic is delivery speed and you have 30 minutes.

Pick something else when:

• every sandbag is a mandate from above. The retro becomes a complaint session; run Mad Sad Glad to air it instead.
• the team has no shared destination yet. Agree one in planning first.
• you need behavior changes fast. Start Stop Continue gets there in 30 minutes.

How to run it live (45 minutes)

1. Check what you dropped last time. Open the Previous Retro tab in the Action Items panel. Did the sandbag actually go, or did it creep back? Old / Unresolved Items shows anything older still open.
2. Agree on the destination. One note, written before anything else. If people can't agree, that's the first discussion.
3. Write, group and vote. Set the shared timer for 10 minutes, then drag related notes together, vote and sort by Most Votes.
4. Discuss sandbags first. For each top one: drop it, shrink it, or keep it on purpose. "Keep it on purpose" is a valid answer, as long as it's said out loud.
5. Then storms, then lift. Storms get a "prepare or plan around" answer. Lift gets protected: name one thing to keep fueling.

How to run it async over a sprint

You feel a sandbag while you carry it, in a meeting you didn't need or a ticket for the old API. Post it then.

1. Day 1: once someone clicks Start New Retro after the last retro, the facilitator writes the destination as the board's first note.
2. During the sprint: people add sandbags as they feel them, and lift when something gives them energy, on the board or in Quick Notes.
3. Mid-sprint: the facilitator counts tickets in progress and adds the number as a sandbag note. Numbers end arguments about load.
4. Two days before the end: everyone adds storms they can see, then votes.
5. The day before: the facilitator groups notes and reads the CarrotIQ Sprint Summary for the weight column.
6. Retro day: a 20-minute call on the top sandbags, or fully async: the facilitator posts the top three with a proposed "drop, shrink or keep," and the team replies by end of day.

More in how to run an async retrospective.

12 example prompts

What lifts us up

1. What gave you energy this sprint?
2. When did the work feel easy, and why?
3. What do we need to keep fueling, or it will fade?

What weighs us down 4. What are we carrying that nobody would miss? 5. Which promise are we still keeping that no longer matters? 6. How many things did we have in progress at once?

Storms ahead 7. What's changing outside the team that could knock us off course? 8. Which date on someone else's calendar affects us? 9. What would we do if the storm hit next week?

Where we want to go 10. Is this still where we want to go? 11. What would we drop today if we took the destination seriously? 12. How will we know we've arrived?

Facilitator tip and a common pitfall

Tip: ask "who would notice?" For every sandbag, ask who would notice if it vanished tomorrow. If "nobody" or "only us," drop it this sprint. If it's a customer or another team, the action is a conversation with them, not a quiet stop.

Pitfall: sandbags nobody on the team can drop. Company-wide processes pile into the weight column, the team can't change them, and the retro ends deflated. Before voting, mark the notes the team controls and vote only on those. Send the rest to their owners as one short list, with the cost of each.

How AI helps with this format

On Pro AI (and during the free trial), CarrotIQ takes care of the admin:

• Group names. Drag "v1 API support for three customers" onto "old CSV import still on call" and CarrotIQ names the group, for example "Legacy Support Load".
• Summaries. The Sprint Summary covers each column and the whole retro. Compare a few sprints' weight summaries to see whether dropped sandbags come back.
• Suggested action items. CarrotIQ Suggest drafts an action from the notes, weighting the most-voted ones. Turn it into a drop, shrink or keep decision, then assign it.

Example action items

Most actions here drop something, and check that it stayed dropped.

At the next retro, check these in the Previous Retro tab. See retrospective action items that actually get done.

Use this template in Retro Rabbit

1. Start a 14-day free trial. No card is needed.
2. Pick Hot Air Balloon from the format library: choose "Browse all formats" when you create your Team Room, or later in the Team Room's Settings.
3. Write the destination first, and ask people to post a sandbag the moment they feel one.

See pricing for plans.

Related formats

• Sailboat: a project goal and the risks on the way
• Speed Car: the same idea, focused on delivery speed
• Team energy check: energy on its own, without the metaphor
• Start Stop Continue: turn what you dropped into new habits
• More formats in Project retrospectives
• All retrospective templates