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User guide

How to use Retrospace

One person creates a board and shares a six-character code. Everyone else joins with the code, with no account, and works together live on a laptop or a phone.

Create a boardJoin with a code
  • WorkshopBrainstorms and planning on a free canvas: sticky notes, text, shapes, connectors, frames and images.
  • CelebrationCards for someone special, with GIFs, a reveal time and a private reveal page for the recipient.
  • RetroA team retrospective that walks everyone through seven stages. Explained step by step below.
  • 🎁☕🎧🏖️⌨️🍕SPIN
    Event raffleA two-ring prize wheel for raffles and give-aways. Explained below.
  • Team wallA long-lived wall of shout-outs, reactions, birthdays and milestones.

For the owner

Create a board and share it

  1. Sign up

    Press Get started and enter your name, email and a password. You land on My boards.

  2. Create a board

    Press New board, choose a type and a template. On a Retro board you also choose the columns: rename, reorder, remove or add your own, and save the set as a template.

  3. Share the code

    Open Settings (the gear) to find the six-character access code and the link. Send it to your team. Optionally add a passcode.

  4. Run the session

    Use the stage bar (Retro), the timer and the Settings to guide everyone. You can create as many boards as you like, each with its own code.

For guests

Join with a code

  1. Open the site

    Go to the Retrospace home page and type the six-character code into Join with code. Capital letters or small letters both work.

  2. Enter the passcode

    Only if the owner set one.

  3. Choose how you appear

    Stay anonymous with a generated name and avatar (press Shuffle for another), or type your own name and build your avatar.

  4. Join

    Press Join. No account and nothing to install. Your name is fixed once you have added something, so pick it first.

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On the board

The tools and everyday actions

Select

Click to pick, drag to move, drag a handle to resize. Drag a box to pick several.

Sticky note (N)

Click the board, type, then click an empty spot to finish.

Text (T)

Free text on the canvas.

Shapes

Rectangle, ellipse and diamond.

Connector

Click one item, then another, to join them with a line.

Frame

A named area that groups what is inside it.

Image

Add a picture. On cards, search Giphy or paste a GIF link.

Highlight words

Double-click a note to edit it, select some words, and press a colour on the bar above the note to highlight them (press the same colour again, or the ×, to take it off). The colours stay on the same words as you keep typing.

Highlighter pen (M)

Draw see-through colour strokes over notes or the canvas to point things out. Pick a colour on the bar. Press V, then click a stroke to select it, recolour it, resize it or delete it.

Highlight (H)

Select a note and press the star, or H, to give it a gold ring and star everyone sees. The host and the note’s author can do it. The host’s Highlights button lists the starred notes, the most-voted ones and the action items, ready to copy or print.

  • Edit text by double-clicking an item (double-tap on a phone). Finish with Cmd or Ctrl + Enter, or click an empty spot. Esc cancels.
  • Delete: select the item and press Delete, or tap the red trash button at the top. That button is how you delete on a phone.
  • Undo and redo are the arrows in the top bar. Zoom is at the bottom right.
  • You can only change your own notes. The board owner can change or delete anyone’s.
  • Throw emoji: the owner turns it on in Settings, Throw emoji. A row of emoji appears at the bottom. Tap one, then click a note to throw it. Esc cancels.
  • Export: the download icon at the top saves a PNG, a CSV of the notes, or opens a printable page you can save as PDF.

Retro boards

The seven stages, step by step

A Retro board is a guided meeting. The owner moves the whole team from one stage to the next with the stage bar at the top (Start, Next stage, Back, and +1 min on the timer). What guests can do depends on the stage, so nobody has to guess.

  1. 1Join
  2. 2Collect feedback
  3. 3Group
  4. 4Vote
  5. 5Review and discuss
  6. 6Create actions
  7. 7Wrap up

  1. Stage 1Join

    1 min

    The waiting room. People arrive, choose how they appear, and wait for you.

    You (owner)
    Wait until everyone is in, then press Start.
    Guests
    Choose a name and avatar. Notes cannot be added yet.

    Remember: If guests say the board is empty, this is why. Press Start.

  2. Stage 2Collect feedback

    5 min

    Everyone writes notes into the columns, such as Went Well, Could Be Improved, Blockers and Ideas. One idea per note.

    You (owner)
    Press Next stage from Join. You can also write notes yourself. Close notes or Reopen notes pauses writing.
    Guests
    Add notes, as themselves or anonymously.

    Remember: This is the only stage where guests can write.

  3. Stage 3Group

    no timer

    Similar notes are put together so the team sees the big themes instead of dozens of single notes.

    You (owner)
    Drag related notes together. Optionally ask the AI to suggest themes, then accept, rename, combine or ignore them.
    Guests
    Watch. Only you organise.

    Remember: Nothing changes until you accept a theme.

  4. Stage 4Vote

    2 min

    Everyone votes on what matters most. Each person has the same limited number of votes (3 by default).

    You (owner)
    Open the stage. You vote too.
    Guests
    Press the vote button on a note. Press it again to take the vote back.

    Remember: The most-voted notes become the topics for the next stage.

  5. Stage 5Review and discuss

    8 min

    The team talks through the top-voted topics, one at a time.

    You (owner)
    Pick the topics to discuss (the top ones are chosen for you; you can change them). Use the timer and +1 min when needed.
    Guests
    Read the topic on screen and talk.

    Remember: Ties are shown, so you decide which of them to discuss.

  6. Stage 6Create actions

    5 min

    Turn the discussion into a few concrete actions: what we will do, who will do it, by when, and how we will know it worked.

    You (owner)
    Add actions, or let guests add them (there is a limit, 3 by default).
    Guests
    Add an action with an owner and a due date.

    Remember: Fewer, clearer actions get done. An action without an owner or date is flagged.

  7. Stage 7Wrap up

    2 min

    Close the session and keep a record.

    You (owner)
    Generate the AI summary, review it, and share it. Export the notes if you want a copy.
    Guests
    Read the shared summary.

    Remember: Guests only see a summary you choose to share.

Timers are suggestions and can be changed or switched off in Settings, Stages. You can also skip a stage by switching it off there.

Event boards

Run a prize wheel

An Event board is a raffle. People are on the outer ring, prizes on the inner ring, and each draw has two steps: first the prize, then who wins it. Everyone with the code watches the same spin live.

  1. Create an Event board

    New board, Event raffle. The board opens on its Setup tab. Guests join with the code just like any other board.

  2. Add people and prizes

    Paste names (one per line or separated by commas), or press Add everyone who joined. Add prizes with an emoji and how many there are, then Save changes. People are on the outer ring and prizes on the inner ring.

  3. Choose the celebration

    Pick an effect for winners (confetti, fireworks, balloons, stars or sparkles), or choose a default Giphy GIF. Each prize can have its own GIF (the GIF button on its row under Prizes) and its own effect (the ☆), so a coffee voucher can show a coffee GIF. A prize without its own GIF uses the default.

  4. Spin for the prize

    Press the SPIN button in the middle of the wheel, the big button, or the space bar. The inner ring turns and stops on the prize.

  5. Spin for the winner

    Press it again. The outer ring turns and stops on the winner, and everyone sees the same spin and the celebration.

  6. Accept, skip or spin again

    Accept winner records the result and takes the winner off the wheel. Not here, skip spins again for the same prize. Spin the winner again goes back one step. Undo the last draw takes back an accepted result.

🎁☕🎧🏖️⌨️🍕SPIN
  • Helpers: in Setup you can tick people who joined to let them run the draw too. Only you change the lists.
  • Present puts a bigger wheel on screen for a projector. Esc leaves it. The speaker button adds a tick and a fanfare (off until you turn it on).
  • History lists every accepted draw, newest first, and downloads as a CSV file.
  • The server picks every result. Guests only watch, and nobody can change what comes up.

Privacy

Anonymous notes

On Retro boards the owner chooses a mode in Settings: optional (each person decides with the Post anonymously switch), always, or never.

  • An anonymous note shows an Anonymous badge. Its author is hidden from everyone, including the owner, on screen, in exports and in AI summaries.
  • Only its author and the board owner can change or delete it.
  • Removing a participant does not remove their anonymous notes, because nobody can tell which are theirs.

Optional

AI summary and themes

AI is off until the owner turns it on. It writes a draft that only the owner sees, and guests only ever see a summary the owner shares.

  1. Settings, AI summaries: switch it on and press I understand. Notes are sent to Anthropic to write the summary, so you confirm that first.
  2. Open Summary and press Generate (or Write manually). The result is a draft only you can see.
  3. Read it on the Report tab. Fix anything on the Edit tab and press Save changes.
  4. When you are happy, press Share with everyone. Make private takes it back.
  5. On the report, Copy as table pastes into Docs or email, and Download PDF or Download image saves a clean copy.
  6. To let the AI pick highlights: open Highlights and press Suggest highlights (AI must be on). It shows the notes it thinks stand out, with a reason for each. Nothing changes until you press Highlight on one, or Highlight all.

The report shows section cards plus two tables built from the board itself, Most voted and Action items. Always read an AI draft before sharing it.

Help

Problems and quick fixes

Guests see an empty board or cannot add notes
On a Retro board press Start, then Next stage to Collect feedback.
“This stage is closed for notes”
The Retro is past Collect, or notes were closed. Press Back or Reopen notes.
“Choose a name first”
Reload the page and choose a name and avatar before adding anything.
I cannot edit someone else’s note
By design. Only the author and the board owner can change a note.
A text box I made disappeared
An empty text box is removed when you click away. Type something first.
The emoji row or live movement is missing
The live connection is down. Check your internet and reload. If it happens for everyone, the host should check realtime.
Wrong passcode
Attempts are limited. Wait a minute and try again, or ask the owner.
I forgot my password
On the sign-in page choose “Forgot your password?”, enter your email and open the link we send. It works once, for 30 minutes. Guests have no password: they just rejoin with the board code.
Create your first board