Guided Mode

Guided Mode is an opinionated, facilitator-led way to run a retrospective. Instead of everyone doing everything at once on a free-form board, the whole team moves together through four phases — Reflect, Group, Vote, and Discuss — one step at a time. A facilitator drives the flow and every participant’s board advances in sync.

Guided Mode reuses the board’s existing tools — the timer, music, voting, card grouping, and the facilitator discussion view — and sequences them into a structured flow. Nothing you already know about the board is lost; it is simply presented one activity at a time.

Note: Guided Mode requires the board owner to be on the Supporter plan or above. Every other participant can take part without a subscription.

Enabling Guided Mode

Turn on Guided Mode from the Board Settings sidebar. Like other feature toggles, it can be enabled by an Admin and above. Once enabled, any Facilitator can start a guided session.

Starting a Session

Open the Board Controls panel and choose Start Guided Retro. Everyone on the board immediately switches into the guided layout, beginning on the Reflect phase. A phase timeline appears in the board header showing where the group is; the active phase carries an info icon with a short hint about what to do. On narrower screens the phases show as icons only.

Who Drives the Flow

A Facilitator and above steers the session with Next and End buttons in the header (on narrower screens they shrink to just their and icons). Advancing moves everyone forward at the same time — participants do not navigate phases themselves; their boards follow the facilitator. If a session facilitator has been picked with Choose Facilitator, they can press Next too, even without the Facilitator role. The timer and music stay available throughout for the facilitator to use as needed.

The Facilitator Actions menu stays in the header during a guided session, just to the left of Next and End. It still offers Clear Only Completed Items, Export Options (Report Details and AI Summary Report), and Show / Hide Quick Controls, plus Clear All Cards for Admin and above. It is available to the same people as outside a guided session: Facilitator and above on claimed boards, or everyone on unclaimed boards. The Sorts and Filters buttons are hidden for the session, since the phases decide which cards show and in what order, and a sort would re-sort everyone’s board.

The Phases

Reflect

Everyone writes their own cards privately. To encourage independent thinking, other participants’ cards stay hidden — you see only a count of how many reflections are still hidden, and all cards are revealed to the group at once when the facilitator moves on to Group. During Reflect, cards show only Edit and Delete; voting, comments, and other card actions are set aside so the focus stays on writing.

Group

All reflections are now visible. Drag similar cards together to group related ideas so the team can vote on themes rather than duplicates. Cards grouped across columns stay labeled with the column they came from. Card grouping and drag-and-drop are enabled automatically for this phase, even if those board settings are otherwise off.

Vote

A fresh voting session opens so the team can prioritize what to discuss. Cast your votes on cards, then click Cast My Votes to submit your ballot. A progress indicator shows how many participants have submitted, and whoever can move the session on also sees the exact count (for example 3/8) beside the vote icon in the board controls. Changed your mind? Use Reset my votes to clear your submission and vote again. If the facilitator tries to advance before everyone has voted, they are warned first. Voting is enabled automatically for this phase, even if the board’s voting setting is otherwise off.

Once a session facilitator has been picked with Choose Facilitator, that person — and only that person — gets an All votes are in popup as soon as every participant has submitted. “Every participant” is the same count the progress indicator shows, so when voting is restricted to members, only members count. The popup offers two choices:

• Discuss Cards — moves the whole group on to Discuss, just like pressing Next. Every vote cast up to that click is counted.
• Stay in Voting — closes the popup and leaves voting open. You can still press Next later.

The popup appears once each time everyone is in. If someone resets their votes or a new participant joins, it closes by itself and comes back the next time everyone is in. It also closes if someone else moves the session on or ends it first, and if another confirmation is already open it waits until that one is closed. With no session facilitator picked, nobody gets the popup, and other facilitators keep using Next.

Discuss

The board switches to the focused facilitator view. Top-voted topics are presented one at a time, with a stacked preview of what’s next. Work through each item, mark it discussed to advance to the next, and capture action items as you go. If a large group runs taller than the screen, scroll the discussion area to reach every card; the action buttons stay pinned at the top. This is the same discussion experience described under Board Controls → Facilitation.

Ending a Session

The facilitator ends the session with the End button. A confirmation appears so no one leaves the flow by accident; confirming returns everyone to the standard board layout. Your cards, groups, and action items are all preserved — only the guided flow ends.

Note: Because the whole team moves through the phases together, Guided Mode is best run live — in the room or over a call — with a facilitator steering the session.