Sprint retrospectives are one of the most important—and most intimidating—meetings for Vietnamese developers working in international teams. You have real feedback to give, problems you’ve noticed, and ideas for improvement. But when the moment comes, many of us stay quiet. Not because we don’t have anything to say, but because we’re not sure how to say it in English without sounding harsh, vague, or awkward.
This guide gives you the exact phrases you need to participate confidently in your next retro.
Understanding the Retro Format
Most retrospectives follow the Start / Stop / Continue or What Went Well / What Didn’t / What to Improve format. Each person is expected to contribute. Silence is noticed.
The meeting is meant to be safe — no blame, no judgment. Your job is to be honest and constructive.
Key Phrases for Each Section
What Went Well (Celebrating wins)
Use specific, observable language — not just “everything was fine.”
- “I thought our daily standups were really focused this sprint. We kept them under 15 minutes most days.”
- “The collaboration between frontend and backend was smooth — we caught the API contract issue early.”
- “The new deployment pipeline saved us a lot of manual work. It went live without any issues.”
- “I appreciated how quickly blockers were escalated. We didn’t sit on problems for too long.”
Tip for Vietnamese speakers: Avoid translating “tốt lắm” literally as “very good.” Instead, be specific about what was good and why it mattered.
What Didn’t Go Well (Raising problems)
This is where many Vietnamese developers go silent. The key is to talk about situations, not people.
- “We had some unclear requirements at the start of the sprint, which caused rework near the end.”
- “I found it difficult to estimate Story X because the acceptance criteria changed twice. Next time, I’d like to lock those down earlier.”
- “Our code review process felt slow. Some PRs sat open for two days before getting reviewed.”
- “There was a lot of context-switching this sprint — we kept getting pulled into production incidents.”
Tip: Use “we” instead of “you” when raising team-level issues. “We had unclear requirements” is much easier to hear than “the requirements weren’t clear.”
Improvements / Action Items (Suggesting solutions)
Don’t just raise a problem — suggest a fix. This makes you look constructive, not just critical.
- “One suggestion: could we add a definition of ready checklist before stories enter the sprint?”
- “I’d like to propose a PR review SLA — maybe 24 hours max for initial feedback.”
- “What if we reserved the last hour of each sprint for documentation updates? It keeps piling up.”
- “Could we try doing a quick 10-minute refinement session mid-sprint? It might help us catch missing details earlier.”
Example Dialogues
Scenario 1: The quiet developer finally speaks up
Scrum Master: Minh, what do you think didn’t go well this sprint?
Minh: Honestly, I struggled with the task for integrating the payment API. The documentation was outdated, and I spent about two days trying to figure out the correct endpoints. It would have helped to have a direct contact at the vendor from the start.
Scrum Master: Good point. What would help next time?
Minh: Maybe we could add a “technical risk” field to stories that involve third-party APIs. That way the team knows to plan extra time or reach out to vendors early.
Scenario 2: Raising a process issue diplomatically
Developer: I want to bring up something about our deployment process. This sprint, we had three hotfixes that weren’t tracked in Jira. It made the release notes messy and we almost missed one in QA.
Lead: What’s your suggestion?
Developer: I think we should enforce a rule: no deployment without a linked ticket. Even for small fixes. It only takes two minutes but it saves a lot of confusion.
Scenario 3: Disagreeing with a retro item politely
Teammate: I think we should stop doing end-of-sprint demos. They take too much time.
You: I see your point — the prep work is heavy. But I’d push back a little. The demos are actually how stakeholders stay aligned. Maybe instead of cutting them, we could make them shorter? Like 15 minutes max, no live coding.
Common Mistakes Vietnamese Speakers Make
1. Saying “no problem” when there were problems
Many of us default to “everything was fine” to avoid conflict. In a retro, this is a missed opportunity. Silence or vague positivity doesn’t help the team improve. Be honest — the meeting is designed to be safe.
2. Using “very” too much
“It was very difficult, very complicated, very confused” — this sounds imprecise. Instead:
- “It was complex because of X”
- “I was unclear about the acceptance criteria”
- “The scope was ambiguous”
3. Avoiding first-person ownership
Vietnamese speakers often avoid saying “I” to stay humble. But in retros, saying “I didn’t understand the requirements” is more useful than “The requirements were not clear” — it invites a conversation about how you specifically can be better supported.
4. Proposing solutions without context
Don’t just say “We should improve communication.” That’s too vague. Say: “I’d like us to try a quick Slack update at the end of each day — just one line on what you finished and what’s blocked.”
Quick Reference Card
| Situation | Phrase |
|---|---|
| Praising team effort | ”The team did a great job handling…” |
| Describing a blocker | ”I was blocked on X because…” |
| Suggesting improvement | ”What if we tried…” / “I’d like to propose…” |
| Polite disagreement | ”I see your point, but I’d push back a little…” |
| Asking for clarification | ”Could you say more about what you mean by…?” |
| Supporting someone’s idea | ”I agree with [name] on this — I had the same experience.” |
| Closing an item | ”So the action item is X, and [name] will own it by [date]. Does that sound right?” |
Final Thought
A good retrospective is one where everyone contributes — including you. Your perspective as someone who wrote the code, debugged the issue, or dealt with the unclear ticket is exactly what the team needs to hear. The phrases above are just tools. The real skill is building the habit of speaking up, one retro at a time.
Next sprint, pick one item — just one — and use it in your retro. That’s how it starts.