After weeks of coding, designing, and testing, your Scrum team is ready to share the latest iteration of your new product. The sprint review meeting is your chance to showcase the work you've done and gather feedback to plan your next steps.
But don't let nerves get the best of you — our guide is here to help you get the most out of your next sprint review meeting. We'll break down the roles of Scrum Masters and Product Owners and share best practices for everyone involved.
What is a sprint review meeting?
Sprint review meetings, part of the Scrum framework, aim to present the work completed during a sprint and gather feedback. They happen at the end of each sprint, which usually lasts from one to four weeks. The goal is simple: to show off what you've done, get feedback from those who matter, and make sure everyone's on the same page.
During these meetings, Scrum teams will show their project progress to stakeholders, and in turn, the stakeholders will provide feedback. This allows everyone involved to see what has been accomplished and understand any challenges faced.
Teams can then use the feedback to improve the product and plan future sprints. This iterative process helps you ensure that the final product meets everyone’s needs and expectations.
What purpose do sprint review meetings serve?
Sprint reviews help maintain a project’s momentum and enhance its overall quality. In fact, teams who use a Scrum process show a 250% improvement in product quality.
But how?
Prevent derailed projects
Do your projects easily go off track? A missed deadline here, a miscommunication there — it happens to the best of us.
But a sprint review meeting provides a regular checkpoint to identify potential problems before things get out of hand.
By catching your issues early, your Scrum team can reallocate their resources, adjust their approach, and make important decisions that keep your project on track. Moreover, everyone remains aware of all the project’s moving parts.
Turn input into actions
Good feedback leads to meaningful change. But all too often, the feedback we receive is vague, unhelpful, or inconsistent.
Sprint review meetings provide a structured setting for gathering feedback with a clear agenda. They encourage stakeholders to provide specific and constructive insights that can be applied directly to the subsequent sprint.
Actionable feedback guides your product development process. Your Scrum team knows to focus its efforts on refining the features that add the most value and meet your stakeholders' needs.
Engage and empower teams
When meetings feel like a chore and lack purpose, it's easy for team members to become disengaged. Sprint reviews solve this problem by giving all Scrum team members a platform to share their work and receive recognition, creating a sense of shared ownership.
By treating sprint reviews as collective learning opportunities, open discussions and feedback sessions can spark continuous learning and development.
Remember, simply acknowledging achievements and celebrating progress can create a positive team environment and keep everyone motivated.
Who is involved in a sprint review meeting?
Don’t forget these key players in your next sprint review meeting:
Scrum Masters
Scrum Masters are the glue that keeps sprint review meetings together. They make sure everything runs smoothly, keep the meeting on track, and get everyone involved.
A Scrum Master’s job is to manage the meeting, making sure it follows the sprint review agenda and stays focused on the sprint goals. And if any conflicts arise, they’re the ones to sort things out quickly and keep things moving.
Product Owners
Product Owners are in charge of presenting the team's accomplishments and going over the backlog. They present the "Done" product increment and highlight its value to stakeholders.
These individuals also explain the thinking behind product decisions, note feedback, and ensure the Scrum team prioritizes tasks accordingly.
Development team
The development team is the builder of the project. Their role is to showcase new features or improvements and discuss any challenges they faced and how they addressed them.
Development teams are also the go-to people for stakeholders to ask about the technical aspects of the completed work.
Executives
Executives should be involved in sprint review meetings because they can offer high-level guidance and feedback on product direction. Their insights help ensure that the project aligns with business goals.
Based on the sprint’s progress, executives make key decisions about budgets, timelines, and staffing.
Customers
Include your customers, if possible, as they can share user stories and provide feedback from a user perspective.
Record notes on their experience to help the team understand which features are most important and should, therefore, be prioritized.
Sprint review meeting best practices for Scrum Masters and Product Owners
How can you be an effective Scrum Master or succeed as a Product Owner? Follow these best practices to make sure your sprint review meetings are productive and valuable:
General best practices
These best practices will make your sprint reviews more effective and engaging:
Set clear objectives for each sprint review
It’s always important to set specific meeting goals, like showcasing specific features, gathering feedback on a new function, or making decisions about the product backlog.
Whatever the goal is, there needs to be one, and it needs to be communicated clearly to all meeting participants in advance. That way, everyone comes prepared and knows what to focus the discussion on.
Use the right technology
The right technology can make your sprint review meetings more efficient and effective. With Lark Meetings, you can hold these sessions online.
Real-time transcription and translation help multilingual teams easily follow along and contribute to the discussion. Meeting transcripts and videos are also accessible to anyone on the team who might have missed a meeting.
Moreover, Lark Base and Meegle are great for keeping your team on track throughout the product development process. Lark Base’s automation helps you streamline tasks, manage backlog items, and track progress, making sprint reviews more focused and productive.
Keep the meeting constructive
Sprint reviews are not the time to point fingers or assign blame. Instead, aim to provide constructive criticism for team members.
Try to encourage open, respectful communication from all parties. Focus on solutions, not who’s responsible for the problem. Also, make sure you stick to the agenda and the allocated time slots so that all relevant topics are covered.
Hold regular meetings
Sprint reviews need to happen consistently to maintain momentum and receive the necessary feedback.
When work gets busy, it's easy to let these meetings slip through the cracks, so schedule your meetings at the end of each sprint — or create a recurring schedule. Remember to communicate the schedule in advance to avoid conflict and maximize team attendance.
With Lark Calendar, you can easily communicate meeting dates, schedule recurring meetings, and send reminders so that no one misses out.
Best practices for Scrum Masters
For Scrum Masters, be sure to follow these key practices:
Keep the meeting on track
Scrum Masters should also be time masters. Make sure your team doesn’t spend too much time on one part of the review or get sidetracked by disagreements.
Time each item according to the agenda (yes, that means you need to have an agenda) to keep the meeting productive and focused. If conversations veer off topic, politely interject and suggest tabling the discussion for another time or a follow-up meeting.
At the end of the meeting, summarize the key points and decisions to make sure everyone leaves with a clear understanding of the next steps.
Schedule the meeting at an ideal time
Be conscious of everyone’s availability, especially if you have a global team working in different time zones. You’ll want to schedule the meeting for when the most important participants can attend.
Sending invites ahead of time will help team members coordinate and prepare for the meeting. Streamline the invitation process with Lark and invite whole groups of people at once.
You can even generate a meeting group from a calendar invite and share the meeting agenda there. That way, everyone has access to the agenda and relevant information in one place.
Identify opportunities to improve meetings
A simple way to improve your meetings is to gather feedback from all participants. Ask them about specific aspects, like time management, facilitation, relevance, and overall meeting value.
Adjust your meetings accordingly, and try different approaches. For example, if multiple team members feel the meetings are dragging on too long, try breaking it up into shorter sessions that focus on one key issue at a time.
See what resonates with your participants the most, as this will allow you to tailor your meetings to be as effective and useful as possible.
Best practices for Product Owners
Product Owners have their own set of guidelines to follow:
Stay up-to-date on your team’s progress
As a Product Owner, it’s essential that you know your team’s progress and are ready to present it during the meeting. What has been accomplished? What still needs to be done? These are both questions you’ll be asked.
A project management tool like Lark Base can help you easily track progress, manage tasks, and provide detailed updates. You’ll always be prepared for whatever questions come your way.
During your meeting, highlight the added value to customers. Explain why certain updates or features are beneficial instead of just presenting the technical details.
Gather feedback and apply it to any product backlogs
Your customers offer the most useful insights — as long as you’re willing to listen.
Unfortunately, many brands are out of touch with the customer experience. In fact, businesses underestimate how frequently bad experiences happen to their customers by 38%.
One of the most important things to do during a sprint review meeting is to actively ask for feedback. This data will guide your product roadmap, ensuring you prioritize the most important features.
Moreover, communicate any changes or updates to the backlog to your team and stakeholders. Transparency helps to keep everyone involved in the process aligned.
Set expectations for the next sprint
At the end of each sprint review, give your team a clear picture of what's coming next. Outline your sprint goals and priorities for the upcoming sprint.
It's also helpful to mention any potential roadblocks or challenges that may affect the next sprint. By being transparent and proactive, you'll help your team prepare and stay aligned with their goals.
What NOT to do in your next sprint review meeting
Here are some common pitfalls to avoid in sprint review meetings:
“Wing it” without an agenda
Without a clear agenda, your meeting can easily be a giant waste of time. Participants go into the meeting not knowing what to expect and leave the meeting unsure of what to do next.
Having an agenda keeps the meeting focused on important topics that directly impact the project. It also allocates time for items that may otherwise be overlooked or not given enough attention.
Try Lark’s Meeting Agenda template to create a structured agenda that will help you run more productive meetings.
Dominate the conversation
A sprint review isn’t a one-person show. Instead of dominating the meeting, allow enough time for your team members and relevant stakeholders to share their thoughts.
If you take over the conversation, other perspectives and insights may be lost or ignored. Team members and key stakeholders may feel unheard or undervalued, leading to disengagement.
Focus on the negatives
It’s human nature to fixate on what went wrong. But a sprint review isn’t the time to shift blame and point fingers. Instead, you should focus on providing constructive feedback.
Obsessing over problems and mistakes not only ruins team morale but also turns meetings into a blame game. Rather, treat them as learning opportunities and discuss solutions that can solve them for the next sprint.
Overwhelm attendees with technical details
There may be different teams or departments in the sprint review meeting. Each of them may have a different level of technical understanding. Overly technical and detailed explanations can confuse and alienate others.
Instead of bombarding the team with intricate details, your goal should be communicating the broader impact and value of your team’s efforts. Use visuals to make information easier to digest. Diagrams, charts, or screenshots can help convey complex concepts in a more accessible way.
Neglect following-up
The worst thing you can do after having a productive sprint review meeting is not follow up on the feedback gathered. Without actions, meeting insights are pointless.
Ignoring those suggestions can even create friction with stakeholders, who might feel like their input hasn't been valued or taken seriously.
So, Scrum Masters, make it a habit to check in with your team after each meeting. Make sure they're actively using that feedback from stakeholders to make the product even better.
Common FAQs about sprint review meetings
Here are the answers to some common questions about sprint review meetings:
Is the Product Owner required in a sprint review meeting?
In short, yes. A Product Owner is in charge of presenting work, explaining decisions, and gathering feedback. They’re the gatekeeper who makes sure products align with stakeholder expectations.
When should a CEO interfere in a sprint review meeting?
Rather than dominating the conversation, a CEO’s role should be a supportive observer. They can offer high-level strategic advice when appropriate, but it’s a good call to trust the team’s expertise and avoid micromanaging.
How do you get customers to attend?
Attract customers to join your sprint reviews by offering perks, such as early access to new features or discounts.
Make them feel valued by giving them a direct influence on product development. This strengthens the relationship between your customers and your team and builds loyalty.
What is a sprint review meeting vs a retrospective?
A sprint review is a celebration of the work done where the Scrum team showcases the product increment and gathers feedback to refine and improve it.
On the other hand, a sprint retrospective is a deep dive into the team’s processes and collaboration to identify areas for improvement.
What happens if a Scrum Master isn’t available for one of these meetings?
While it’s generally ideal to have the Scrum Master at the meeting, you can also delegate the responsibility to an experienced team member.
Alternately, encourage the Scrum team to organize and run the meeting collaboratively. If their presence is absolutely necessary, postpone the meeting and inform them beforehand.
Prepare and hold your next sprint review on Lark
Make the most out of every sprint review meeting. Get started with Lark today.
Table of Contents
