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Mood Boards

Run quick sentiment-check sessions where the team contributes a picture, song, emoji, colour, GIF or word that captures how they feel.

Last updated April 2026

Mood Boards are short, lightweight sessions that surface how the team is feeling without needing a full Retrospective. Pick an input type, share the link, and the team drops a single response that captures the mood of the week.

When To Use One

Use a Mood Board when you want a fast pulse of the room. Common moments:

  • Start of a one-to-one or team meeting, to set the tone before the agenda.
  • End of a sprint or project milestone, when a full retro would be too heavy.
  • After a stressful incident, to give everyone a quiet way to register how they're holding up.
  • Periodically through a quarter as a check-in trend you can look back on later.

Mood Boards are not a substitute for Retrospectives. They are a faster, lower-effort companion.

Input Types

Every board uses a single input type, picked when you create it. The host locks the type once the first submission lands so the renderer stays consistent.

Picture

Drop a photo or screenshot. Tiles render as a masonry grid.

Music

Search Spotify, pick a track, the tile shows the cover art and a Listen On Spotify link.

Emoji

Tap from a curated set of around 120 mood-evocative emojis. Identical emojis stack with a count badge.

Colour

Tap a preset swatch or enter a custom hex value. Tiles render as solid-fill squares.

GIF

Search a GIF library and submit. Tiles render the looping clip.

Word

A single word per submission, packed into a word cloud sized by repeat count.

Lifecycle

A Mood Board moves through three statuses. The status pill on the public page flips live as you go.

The host has created the board and is configuring the prompt, theme and rules. Draft boards are not reachable from the share link, so participants cannot join early.

The board is open for submissions. Anyone with the link can join, drop their contribution and see what the rest of the team has shared. Reactions and comments fire in real time over a WebSocket. If the host set a Close At date, the board auto-closes when it arrives.

Submissions are no longer accepted, but reactions and comments stay enabled so the team can keep discussing what came in. The host can re-open the board, reset it back to Draft, or duplicate it to start a fresh round with the same configuration.

Configuring A Board

When creating a Mood Board you choose:

  • Prompt - the headline question the team is answering, for example "How did this sprint feel?".
  • Description - optional supporting context shown under the prompt.
  • Team - which team the board belongs to.
  • Session Date - the day the live session is scheduled for. The board still works on any date, this is just for your records.
  • Theme Colour - an accent colour that tints the public page header and submission area.
  • Submissions Per Person - leave unlimited, or cap at 1, 2 or 3 to keep the board punchy.
  • Anonymous Names - on by default. Participants get a friendly random name (e.g. Sapphire Otter) but can change it.
  • Allow Reactions and Allow Comments - both default on. Turn off for a quieter, lower-friction session.
  • Close At - optional automatic close date and time.

Sharing With The Team

Every Mood Board has a public share link. The host moves the board to Live, copies the link from the share button on the edit page and drops it into Slack, Teams, the calendar invite, or wherever the team gathers.

Optional password protection adds a participant gate. The host shares the password through the same channel as the link.

Reactions And Comments

Each submission on a Mood Board can receive reactions and comments from any participant. The reaction set matches Retrospectives - plus one, plus, laugh, cry and agree - so the same hover-tooltip behaviour applies. Comments are flat (one level deep). Participants can edit or delete their own; the host can moderate any from the facilitate view.

Closing And Reusing

Once the conversation has wound down, close the board to lock submissions. A small celebratory confetti burst plays once for everyone connected when the board closes with at least three submissions.

To reuse a board for the next sprint or session:

  • Duplicate copies the prompt, description, theme, rules and team into a fresh Draft board. Submissions, reactions and comments are not carried over.
  • Reset wipes the current session's content and flips the board back to Draft so you can re-open the same URL.

Privacy

Public participants are identified by an authorToken stored in their browser's localStorage. This token never leaves the participant's device and is what gates their ability to edit or delete their own content. The host always has moderation rights from the facilitate view.

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