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The KISS technique

Learn from the past in order to plan for the future

Pratique

Aim

At the end of a project, it’s often helpful to conduct a review. The KISS technique is a simple and effective project review resource that can be used individually or collectively to improve the group dynamic, set out an action plan, make decisions, prioritise actions.

Drawing on past experiences to plan for the future, the KISS tool provides a means of stepping back and objectively and constructively analysing the following:

• the content of a project
• the process
• the team dynamic
• what actions could be improved, abandoned or introduced.

Instructions

Time needed: 45 minutes to an hour

^{Download the template}

To make sure the group gets the most out of the technique, explain the acronym in advance:

• Keep: things we want to keep doing
• Improve: things we want to improve
• Stop: things we want to stop doing
• Start: things we want to start doing

Key steps

1. Once the focus of the project review has been established, invite the participants to spend a few minutes reflecting individually and writing down their ideas onto the Post-it notes provided.
   So that it’s easier to sort the ideas afterwards, ask them to respect your chosen colour code for the four categories.
   E.g.: “We communicate via 3 social networks: LinkedIn, Twitter and TikTok”. If the participant feels any of these should be kept, they write it on a “Keep” Post-it note.
2. Sorting into common themes
   One at a time, the participants stick their Post-it notes onto the template displayed on the wall (either printed out or drawn out in advance).
   You can help the group stay on track by refocusing their attention whenever they start to digress or a debate starts to erupt.
3. Debrief
   Together, the group identifies points of convergence and divergence.
   You can now initiate discussions and deliberations, guiding the participants towards an action plan. In this action plan, they must determine “who does what”, “when” and “how”, in relation to the decisions and actions that have arisen from the exercise.

Tips and advice

• If the list is too long, you could get the group to vote to rank the actions in order of priority.
• The KISS technique can also be used for individual reviews.