Step 5.2: Drive product launch retrospectives
Airtable
6 min read
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Airtable
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Guide for product operations
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Drive product launch retrospectives
Of course, the work doesn’t stop once a product launches. And it’s so important to get feedback from key stakeholders before you dive into the next project.
Below, find some best practices for driving launch retrospectives in Airtable to capture those ideas while they’re fresh on everyone’s minds.
Follow along in Airtable.
In this step, we’ll explore this team-level template. Dive deeper into the product operations workflow here.
Create a clear home for team feedback
There are two options we recommend for tracking retrospectives. The first is to capture notes in a long text field right in your sprints table.
⚡ Pro tip
You can also add a button field, which can take users directly to a document for retrospective note-taking.
Alternatively, create a “Retrospectives” table and link it to your existing “Sprints” table so you can keep sprints associated with relevant retrospective context.
Use this approach if you want to solicit retrospective feedback across your cross-functional product team in Airtable. Below are a few handy best practices for you to try out with your new table in place.
Solicit feedback with feedback forms
Use Airtable forms to solicit feedback either ahead or during a retrospective meeting. When crafting your form questions, make sure to capture the following fields:
Product area
Feedback
Type/category (like stop, start, and continue)
If you’re collecting feedback before a meeting, you might consider using the chart app or interface to highlight feedback trends you can dig into live.
Once your responses come in, add fields such as “Priorities” to the feedback (P0, P1, P2) to categorize the feedback. Views are another way you can look at feedback in different ways. Kanban view is a popular view in which to categorize retrospective feedback.
Collect and prioritize launch fast-follows
In addition to creating a space in your base to hold retros, it’s also helpful to capture any launch fast-follows, or a backlog of features to be worked on in future sprints.
Create an Airtable form to send out to teams for feedback—the answers to your questions will pipe into the main “Feedback” table, which you can then reroute to the right person/Product DRI based on product area.
Documenting fast-follows is a great way to ensure teams feel heard after they’ve provided feedback. Fast-follows are also essential for making improvements on the feature on an ongoing basis.
Giving your team a clear and consistent way to share their feedback will help you capture learnings as you go—and incorporate them into your next launch. In the next step, we’ll share some other tips for streamlining launch management across your entire organization.
