Postgame documentation
Get started
- Install Postgame from the Atlassian Marketplace (Jira admin). Sites of up to 10 users pay a flat $28 a month, and every site gets a 30-day free trial.
- Open a Jira project and choose Retrospectives in the project sidebar. A short welcome explains how a retro runs; Hide this dismisses it.
- Choose New retro (or Start a retro), pick the sprint and a format, and choose Create retro.
- Share the project with your team. Anyone who can see the project can join from Retrospectives in the project sidebar.
You can also start from the sprint itself: in the backlog, open the sprint's ••• menu and choose Run a retrospective.
There is nothing to install in Confluence.
Create a retro
New retro asks for:
- Sprint: any sprint from the project's scrum boards, or No sprint (team or project retro). Linking a sprint pulls in how many issues were completed, so the team starts from facts.
- Title: defaults to "
retro". - Format: one of six built-in formats, a format your team saved, or Your own columns (up to 6 columns, each with a title and color, optionally saved as a template for this project).
| Format | Columns |
|---|---|
| Start, Stop, Continue | Start, Stop, Continue |
| Went well, To improve, Ideas | Went well, To improve, Ideas |
| 4Ls | Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for |
| Mad, Sad, Glad | Mad, Sad, Glad |
| Sailboat | Wind, Anchors, Rocks, Island |
| Keep, Add, Less, More | Keep, Add, Less, More |
- How it runs:
- Anonymous cards (on by default): nobody, including facilitators and Jira admins, can see who wrote a card.
- Hide cards while writing (on by default): people see only their own cards until the facilitator moves to Group.
- Check-in (on by default): everyone rates the sprint from 1 to 5, anonymously. The average is tracked across retros.
- Anyone can facilitate (on by default): if the facilitator drops off, someone else can move the retro forward. Turn it off to limit it to you, co-facilitators and project admins.
- Votes per person (default 5, up to 20) and Max per topic (default 3).
Running a retro
A retro has five steps shown at the top of the board: Collect, Group, Vote, Discuss and Closed. The facilitator moves forward with Next:
Collect. Write one thought per card in any column with Add a card... and Enter. With Hide cards while writing on, you see only your own cards; other people's appear as a count of hidden cards. You can edit or delete your own cards.
Group. All cards are revealed. The facilitator drags a card onto another to group them, or ticks cards and uses Group selected, and gives each group a short title (click the title to rename it). Cards can still be added in this step.
Vote. Vote on what to discuss with the + and - buttons on each card or group. You see how many votes you have left. Votes are blind: totals appear only when discussion starts.
Discuss. Topics by votes lists groups and cards in vote order. Add action items from any topic as you talk.
Closed. The retro is read-only, with a Summary of the topics and action items.
Other tools on the board:
- Timer: the facilitator starts a 3, 5 or 10 minute timer that everyone sees, and can Stop it.
- Check-in: how was this sprint?: rate 1 to 5 during Collect, Group and Vote. The team average appears after Collect.
- Sprint completed: the sprint's completed and not-completed issue counts, captured when the retro was created. The facilitator can refresh them.
- Actions from earlier retros: open action items from past retros, with how many are done. Review them to tick off the ones that are finished.
people joined : how many people have written a card, voted or checked in.
Action items
Add action items with Add action item, or from a topic in Discuss. Each one has the text ("What will we do, specifically?"), an optional Owner and Due date, and an option to also create a Jira issue in this project, with a choice of issue type. You need permission to create issues in the project for that.
You can create a Jira issue later from an existing action with Create Jira issue....
Open action items appear in Open action items on the Retrospectives page and at the top of every new retro until they are done. Mark them Done or Drop them. An action linked to a Jira issue counts as done when the issue is resolved.
Import open actions from another tool (on the Retrospectives page) takes one action per line. Add | 2026-10-20 for a due date and | PHX-123 to link an existing Jira issue. Imported actions show up in your next retro.
Exports
From the Group step onward, Export offers:
- Copy as Markdown: paste it into a Confluence page or a ticket. It has a section per column with group titles and their cards, vote counts, action items and actions carried over from earlier retros.
- Download Markdown.
- Download CSV: one row per card and action item, with column, topic (group title), card text, votes, author (in named retros), owner, due date, Jira issue and status.
Trends
The Retrospectives page shows Action follow-through, Average check-in and Sprint completion across your recent retros, with a small chart of check-in per retro.
Retro settings (facilitators)
The facilitator opens settings on the board to:
- change the Title,
- turn Anyone who can see this project can facilitate on or off,
- add or remove Co-facilitators (in addition to the person who started the retro and project admins),
- Delete retro, which removes its cards, votes and action items. Jira issues created from actions are kept.
The person who started a retro or a project admin can add co-facilitators.
Who can do what
| Who | Can |
|---|---|
| Anyone with Browse Projects permission on the project | Open retros, write cards, vote, check in, add action items |
| Facilitators (everyone by default, or the creator, co-facilitators and project admins) | Move between steps, group cards, set the timer, edit retro settings |
| People with Create Issues permission | Create Jira issues from action items |
| The person who started a retro, or a project admin | Delete the retro, add co-facilitators |
Postgame checks your Jira permissions on every action, so people who can't see the project can't see its retros.
Licensing and trials
Postgame is paid through Atlassian: $28 a month for up to 10 users, billed per user above that, with a 30-day free trial. In the last 7 days of the trial a banner shows how many days are left. Your retros and action items are kept when you subscribe.
If the site has no active license, Postgame is read-only: you can still open and export past retros, but you can't add cards, vote or run a retro until a Jira admin starts a trial or subscribes from Manage apps.
Privacy and data handling
Postgame runs on Atlassian's Forge platform and is built for Runs on Atlassian. It makes no calls outside Atlassian.
- Retros, cards, votes and action items are stored in Atlassian's Forge storage for your site.
- Every call to Jira runs as you, with your permissions.
- In anonymous retros, who wrote a card and who voted are stored only as a one-way hash, so nobody can look them up. While cards are hidden, other people's cards are not sent to your browser at all.
- In a team of two or three, anonymity can't hide writing style. Keep that in mind for small teams.
Postgame asks Jira for permission to read projects, boards and sprints (sprint picker and sprint numbers), read users (owner picker and names in named retros), read and create issues (action status and "create as Jira issue"), and use app storage.
Limits and known gaps
- Jira only. There is no Confluence macro; use Copy as Markdown to put a retro on a Confluence page.
- Up to 400 cards per retro, 60 per person, 500 characters per card, 6 columns, 50 action items per retro and 20 saved formats per project.
- Sprint numbers are a snapshot taken when the retro is created; the facilitator can refresh them.
- Retro history from other retrospective apps can't be migrated. Open action items can be imported.
- Anonymity can only be changed before the first card is added.
FAQ
What if the facilitator drops off the call? By default anyone can facilitate, so someone else moves the retro forward. If you limit facilitation, add co-facilitators so you are never stuck.
Do group titles show up in the results? Yes, on the board, in the summary and in both Markdown and CSV exports.
Can I export the retro? Yes: Copy as Markdown, Download Markdown and Download CSV.
Is it really anonymous? In anonymous retros nobody, including facilitators and Jira admins, can see who wrote a card or how anyone voted. Cards stay hidden while people write.
What happens to action items after the retro? They stay open on the Retrospectives page and appear at the top of every new retro until they are done, with their Jira status if they are linked to an issue.
Do we need Confluence? No. Postgame runs inside the Jira project and the sprint menu.
Does it support dark mode? Yes. It follows your Jira theme.
We're moving from Data Center. Can we bring our open actions? Yes, with Import open actions from another tool.
Uninstalling and your data
Export any retros you want to keep first. When the app is uninstalled, Atlassian deletes Postgame's storage for your site. Jira issues created from action items are your Jira data and are not deleted.
Support
Open a request in the Great Work support portal (linked from the Marketplace listing) or email hello@greatwork.company. We answer within one business day (US Central time). Security reports: within 4 hours.