[discussion]: Alternatives to Figma for retrospectives?

[lwjohnst86]

What would you like to discuss?

Given that the Figma board is actually owned by Mjolner, it might make sense in the long term to move over to something else that we control/own. Thoughts on that?

Also to put in this issue are things we need from an alternative.

[K-Beicher]

The retrospective support from Figma is called FigJam, and offers a free version of the professional plan to educators, but you have to not only work at an educational establishment, you also have to upload a copy of your syllabus which will be manually reviewed. The free version of FigJam may be all we need, but due diligence would call for a review to see if it does offer all the functionality we would like.

Found a list of software that might look promising, going to put brief comments in this post before going into a detailed discussion in the next one.

Penpot is looking promising, but needs further testing as it isn't designed to do retrospectives (it has an add-on which can be used). Not on the list above.

Scrumlr looks interesting and may be worth a further look.
Retro tool may be worth looking at, not as many features, but looks like it does the work we want it to.
Refacto (https://github.com/davidje13/Refacto) may be worth a second look, but will require some installation (I think), it is a re-write of Postfacto (see further down), and still being updated on GitHub.

Return (https://github.com/Sebazzz/Return) has screen shots that looks good, but the GitHub project hasn't been updated for about 2 years, so unsure if it is worth trying out.
Retrospected has a free version, but the version we would need is about $13 per month. It is unclear if it would suit us, as there is limited overview of the cards at any given time (layout much more like a Kanban).
RetroMatic (https://github.com/MassiveNerds/RetroMatic), requires Firebase to run, hasn't been updated in about 5 years (at least on GitHub), so it is unclear if it will work for us as there are no screen shots to work from.
Postfacto has been archived by owner in 2023, so...
Remote Retro the app is tied to a google account, it does look like you can install it locally, and that might mitigate this, it is semi-flexible, but I don't think we'll be completely happy with the interface.
Watika retro tool looks nice, but it's been two years since the Github project was last updated. There is a lot of prep before it can be tested.

[K-Beicher]

Just some initial things that the current env can do, will refine later.

Keep track of previous retros
Allow for easy grouping by all members of the retro
Mark each card with the name of the person writing it
Easy to work through each persons cards in one go
Plenty of space for writing comments and actions on the grouped items
Change of colour on the cards
Fun additions (stickers etc)
Hosted online

@lwjohnst86 @martonvago could the two of you have a look at this list of features that we appreciate in the current software and add anything that I have missed? I'll ask Signe to do the same once she is back from annual leave. Once we have a comprehensive list of features, we can grade them and then go on the hunt for a potential replacement.

[lwjohnst86]

Great start @K-Beicher!! Things I might also add:

• Easy navigation within a retrospective
• Easy to convert discussion points into action items (would be great if it was integrated with GitHub, like making an issue about the item!)
• Can archive retrospectives and can access again easily later (issue I see with Figma, is the size of the board as we keep adding more and more retrospectives).

[martonvago]

I agree with all of the above 😊

[K-Beicher]

Eduroam is playing up, so I can't get to edit the above comment, I've groups functionality below, and will get comments from @signekb before we decide which features are the most important.

Make cards
Cards should have a minimum of n characters
Assign cards to What worked/Did't work
Cards have clear ownership
Cards can have different colours

Group cards together based on overall theme (not based on works/doesn't)
Keep groups visually separate
Add comments and actions to groups of cards live, visible to all participants
Conversion of actions into issues should be easy
No limit to comments on groups
Easy to navigate around groups and get a visual overview of them

Retrospective is saved
Retrospective is able to be archived (and still be available)
Retrospective is searchable (ie 'have we discussed and solved this before')
'Fun' tools for drawing and adding stickers/emojis/etc
Hosted online (not dependent on a machine (eg Docker container) running)

[K-Beicher]

@signekb Would you look through the first and last comments above and let me know which functionality we are missing in the list (if any)? Then I can sort them out when I'm back from leave.

[signekb]

Maybe we're missing something about interactiveness? Like, that we can see each other edit live (e.g., when I write up the action items at the end of the retrospective)?

I know I've said it before, but I think that using the free version of Figma covers our needs 🤷‍♀️