Sprint review
Definition
A sprint review is a Scrum ceremony held at the end of each sprint where the development team demonstrates the work completed during the sprint to stakeholders and the Product Owner, and collaborates on what to do next.
The sprint review is about the product, not the team's process — that's what distinguishes it from the sprint retrospective, which follows it. The review asks: did we build the right thing? The retro asks: did we build it the right way?
Time box: four hours for a one-month sprint, proportionally shorter for two-week sprints (typically one to two hours).
What happens:
- The Product Owner confirms which items are "done" per the definition of done.
- Developers demo the working software — live, not slides.
- Stakeholders ask questions, provide feedback, and suggest new ideas.
- The Product Owner updates the product backlog based on the discussion.
- The team reviews the timeline, budget, and capabilities in light of the demo and feedback.
Key rules:
- Only completed work gets demoed. "90% done" doesn't ship.
- The demo is interactive — stakeholders should be able to click, not just watch.
- Feedback goes into the backlog, not directly into the current sprint.
The sprint review is the team's most visible moment. It builds stakeholder trust when run consistently with working software. Teams that show slides about features they didn't quite finish erode that trust fast.
Many sprint reviews involve a whiteboard — the Product Owner might sketch revised priorities, or the team draws a roadmap update based on stakeholder feedback. BoardSnap AI captures those whiteboard adjustments as structured output before the room empties.
Examples
- Team demos the new checkout flow; stakeholder asks for a confirmation email — added to backlog on the spot
- Product Owner crosses off three stories as done and returns two to the backlog as incomplete
- Quarterly sprint review with external client; team demos working prototype of the integration
- Whiteboard roadmap updated during the review based on investor feedback; BoardSnap captures the revised plan
- Engineering lead shows velocity trend chart alongside the demo to give context on team capacity
Snap a sprint review. Ship its actions.
BoardSnap turns any whiteboard — including this one — into a summary and action plan.