New teams face unique challenges: members don’t know each other well, working norms aren’t established, and trust is still developing. Standard retrospective questions often miss these foundational needs, focusing instead on process optimization that’s premature for teams still forming.

This guide provides retrospective questions specifically designed for new teams—questions that build trust, establish healthy patterns, and create the foundation for high performance.

Why New Teams Need Different Questions

The Forming Stage

New teams are typically in Tuckman’s “Forming” stage:

• Members are polite but reserved
• Roles and norms are unclear
• People are figuring out how to work together
• Trust hasn’t been established yet

What New Teams Need

Standard Team Focus	New Team Focus
Process optimization	Norm establishment
Efficiency gains	Trust building
Technical improvements	Communication patterns
Velocity tracking	Working agreement creation

Getting-to-Know-You Questions

Start retrospectives with questions that help team members learn about each other:

Background and Experience

1. What’s one thing about your background that most people here don’t know?
2. What was your favorite project you’ve worked on and why?
3. What’s your superpower as a team member?
4. What’s one skill you’re hoping to develop while on this team?
5. What’s your preferred communication style?

Work Preferences

6. When do you do your best work (morning/afternoon/evening)?
7. Do you prefer to think things through before discussing, or talk to think?
8. How do you prefer to receive feedback?
9. What helps you focus best?
10. What’s your biggest pet peeve in team settings?

Personal Connection

11. What do you like to do outside of work?
12. What’s the last thing that made you laugh?
13. If you weren’t in tech, what would you be doing?
14. What’s something you’re looking forward to?
15. What’s your go-to way to recharge?

📖 Explore more: our retrospective questions guide

Trust-Building Questions

Questions that help establish psychological safety:

Creating Safety

16. What would help you feel more comfortable sharing ideas in this team?
17. What makes a team feel “safe” to you?
18. When have you been on a team where you felt you could be yourself?
19. What’s one thing this team could do to build trust?
20. How do you prefer to handle disagreements?

Vulnerability and Openness

21. What’s something you find challenging that you’d appreciate support with?
22. What’s one thing you wish you were better at?
23. When do you tend to hold back in team discussions?
24. What would make it easier to admit when you’re stuck?
25. How can we create space for people to say “I don’t know”?

💡 RetroFlow supports anonymous input for building trust—free, no signup required.

Establishing Norms Questions

Help the team create working agreements:

Communication

26. How should we handle urgent questions?
27. What response time should we expect for messages?
28. What meetings do we actually need?
29. How do we want to make decisions as a team?
30. When should we use async vs. sync communication?

Collaboration

31. How do we want to handle code reviews?
32. When should we pair program?
33. How do we share knowledge within the team?
34. What should our Definition of Done include?
35. How do we handle when someone is blocked?

Conflict and Feedback

36. How should we handle disagreements?
37. How do we want to give each other feedback?
38. What should we do if someone isn’t meeting commitments?
39. How do we escalate issues if needed?
40. How do we celebrate wins?

Early Sprint Retrospective Questions

For the first few sprints:

After Sprint 1

41. What surprised you about working together?
42. What’s one thing that went better than expected?
43. What’s one thing we should figure out before next sprint?
44. What do you wish you’d known at the start of this sprint?
45. What’s your biggest question about how we work?

After Sprint 2-3

46. Are our working agreements serving us?
47. What habit should we establish now before it’s too late?
48. Where are we communicating well? Where not so well?
49. What assumption have we made that we should test?
50. How aligned do we feel on our goals?

Ongoing New Team Questions

51. What have you learned about a teammate that helps you work better with them?
52. What’s working about our team dynamics?
53. What isn’t working that we haven’t addressed yet?
54. Are we developing the trust we need?
55. What would make you excited to stay on this team long-term?

Role Clarity Questions

Help new teams understand responsibilities:

Individual Roles

56. What do you see as your primary responsibility on this team?
57. What expertise do you bring that we should leverage?
58. What support do you need to do your best work?
59. Are there tasks you’re doing that someone else should own?
60. What decisions can you make independently vs. need team input?

Team Structure

61. Who should we go to for what?
62. How do we handle when responsibilities overlap?
63. What gaps do we have in our team skills?
64. How do we ensure everyone contributes to team decisions?
65. What should the team lead/scrum master handle vs. the whole team?

First Retrospective Agenda for New Teams

A suggested structure for a new team’s first retrospective:

Opening (10 minutes)

• Brief icebreaker (questions 11-15)
• Set expectations for the retrospective

Getting to Know Each Other (15 minutes)

• Each person shares their work preferences (questions 6-10)
• Note patterns and differences

Initial Norms Discussion (15 minutes)

• Discuss communication preferences (questions 26-30)
• Start a working agreement document

Sprint Reflection (10 minutes)

• What surprised you? (question 41)
• What should we figure out? (question 43)

Closing (10 minutes)

• One thing you’re looking forward to about this team
• One action item for next sprint

These questions work especially well with structured formats. Browse 30+ retrospective formats to find the right match.

Questions to Avoid with New Teams

Too Soon for These Questions

Avoid This	Why	Try Instead
”What should we stop doing?”	Norms not established yet	”What habit should we establish?"
"Who caused the blocker?”	Damages forming trust	”What caused the blocker?"
"Why did we miss our commitment?”	Too much pressure early	”What did we learn about our capacity?"
"Rate this sprint 1-10”	Not enough baseline	”What surprised you?”

Building Before Critiquing

New teams need to:

1. Establish safety first
2. Build relationships
3. Create positive patterns
4. Then optimize processes

Premature critique can damage trust before it forms.

Signs Your New Team Is Progressing

Healthy Signs

• People disagree openly and respectfully
• Team members ask for help
• Laughter happens naturally
• People admit mistakes without fear
• Ideas come from everyone, not just seniors

Warning Signs

• Only one or two people talk
• No one admits to struggles
• Disagreement is avoided entirely
• People blame others or external factors
• Energy is consistently low

Tips for Facilitating New Team Retrospectives

Create Extra Safety

• Use anonymous input for sensitive questions
• Explicitly invite quieter members to share
• Model vulnerability as the facilitator
• Thank people for sharing difficult things

Go Slower

• Fewer questions, more depth
• More time for each person to share
• Don’t rush to solutions
• Let conversations develop naturally

Focus on Patterns, Not Incidents

• “What are we noticing?” not “What went wrong?”
• Look for themes across responses
• Build shared understanding before solving

Document Agreements

• Capture working agreements in writing
• Revisit and refine each retrospective
• Make norms explicit, not assumed

Building Your Working Agreement

Use retrospectives to build a living document:

Sample Working Agreement Topics

TEAM WORKING AGREEMENT

Communication:
- Respond to messages within [X hours]
- Use Slack for [quick questions], email for [formal communications]
- Video on for [which meetings]

Collaboration:
- Code reviews within [X hours]
- Pair programming for [which situations]
- Definition of Done includes [criteria]

Meetings:
- Standups at [time], [duration]
- Cameras [on/optional]
- [Meeting] is required, [meeting] is optional

Feedback:
- Give feedback [how]
- Escalate issues to [whom] after [what threshold]

Personal:
- Core hours: [time range]
- Respect focus time [when]

Frequently Asked Questions

What retrospective questions work best for new teams?

New teams benefit from trust-building questions like “What is one thing you appreciate about this team so far?” and lightweight reflection like “What surprised you this sprint?” Avoid heavy questions about dysfunction until the team has built psychological safety.

How soon should a new team run their first retrospective?

Run your first retrospective after the very first sprint. The earlier you establish the retro habit, the faster your team builds trust and improves. Use a simple format like What Went Well or Start Stop Continue for the first session.

Should new teams do anonymous retrospectives?

It depends on the team’s comfort level. Anonymous input can help new team members share honest feedback before trust is fully established. As the team matures, you can transition to named contributions.

Give It a Try

Want to run a New Team retrospective without fussing over setup? RetroFlow comes with a built-in template, dot voting, and anonymous mode — no signup, no cost.

Start a free retro →

Summary

New teams need retrospective questions focused on:

• Trust building — Creating psychological safety
• Getting to know each other — Understanding preferences
• Establishing norms — Creating working agreements
• Role clarity — Understanding responsibilities
• Gentle reflection — Learning without blame

Focus on these foundations before optimizing process. The investment in team formation pays dividends in performance later.

Keep Exploring

• First Retrospective Guide
• 50+ Retrospective Questions - Complete question library
• Building Trust Before Retrospectives - Psychological safety
• Retrospective Icebreaker Questions - Opening activities
• How to Facilitate a Retrospective - Facilitation tips