We run async retrospectives tied to GitLab's monthly milestone schedule, which ends on the 3rd Thursday of each month.
#### Three-phase process
1.**Collection (2+ weeks)**: Team members submit feedback via Slack shortcut, which saves to a shared Google Sheet. Submit what went well, what could improve, ideas to try, or blockers encountered.
2.**Synthesis (3-4 days)**: A rotating facilitator reviews submissions, groups them into themes, creates a voting poll, and posts top themes to the retrospective issue.
3.**Discussion & Action (1 week)**: Team discusses themes async in the GitLab issue, selects 2-3 action items with assigned owners, and creates follow-up issues.
#### Slack workflow fields
The Slack shortcut collects:
-**Type** (dropdown): Went well, Could improve, Idea/experiment, Question
-**Details** (text): Description of the feedback
#### Tracking action items
- Action items are tracked in the retrospective issue with assigned owners
- Progress is reviewed in the weekly sync
- Completed actions are referenced in the next milestone's planning
