The best part of your
retrospective.
esteam.life lets Scrum teams send kudo cards all sprint, then reveal them together in the retro. Recognition that lands where the team already meets.
From €2 per user / month · No setup fees · 60-day free trial · Cancel anytime
How esteam.life works
esteam.life is for people who work in a team and want to lift its morale.
Send kudos as they happen
Thank a teammate the moment they do something worth noticing. Write a short kudo card that says what they did and why it mattered.
Reveal kudos in the retrospective
Kudos stay hidden until the retrospective, where the team reveals them together. Every sprint ends with a round of recognition.
Pick a card design
Choose from 14 card designs, each with its own theme and emoji, to match the moment. See them all in the kudo card templates gallery.
What esteam.life does for your role
Everyone on or around a Scrum team gets something different out of recognition.
Scrum Masters
Start retrospectives with recognition, so the team talks about what went well before what went wrong.
Product Owners
Recognize the work that moved the product forward, so the team sees how its effort connects to product goals.
Tech Leads
Make individual technical contributions visible to the whole team, including the quiet fixes nobody would otherwise mention.
HR
Give teams a way to appreciate each other that doesn't depend on a formal HR program.
Agile Coaches
Help teams build a recognition habit that fits into the Scrum events they already run.
Simple, transparent pricing
Standard covers what most teams need. Enterprise adds single sign-on, unlimited teams and priority support.
Standard
Best for small to mid teams
-
Unlimited kudos cards
-
14 card designs
-
Card reveal sessions
-
Email support
-
Up to 10 teams
Enterprise
Best for larger or scaling organizations
-
Everything in Standard
-
SSO via Microsoft Entra IDnew
-
Custom card designsroadmap
-
Kudos at company eventsroadmap
-
Priority support
-
Unlimited teams
All prices are per user per month. No setup fees or hidden costs. Excluding applicable taxes.
What the research says about recognition
Recognition affects whether people stay, whether they speak up and how much effort they put in.
"Employees who do not feel adequately recognized are twice as likely to say they will quit in the next year."
Regular recognition helps people stay engaged and reduces avoidable turnover.
"Psychological safety is the most important factor in determining how successful a team is."
Recognition helps people feel safe enough to speak up in their team.
"Giving your direct reports regular updates on personal performance, as well as on how the business is doing, helps them feel valued."
Kudos work best when recognition is frequent, concrete and easy to share.
esteam.life turns this into a habit. Teammates send each other kudos during the sprint and reveal them together in the retrospective.
Recognition that teams actually feel
Here's what Product Owners and Scrum Masters say about using esteam.life.
The advantage of esteam is promoting positive feedback. While feedback often focuses on things that could be done differently or better, we tend to overlook the good points. By focusing on these, you do achieve this positivity.
When we started using esteam within our team, it took some getting used to, but filling out esteam quickly became part of our sprint process. By making the team reveal within esteam part of the retrospective, we looked not only at improvements but also paid attention to personal appreciation.
Esteam worked great for my team because it's an easy way to be positive about colleagues, with a simple reminder per sprint just before the retrospective, allowing you to start a retrospective positively.
What's even better is the ability to give kudos to other teams, and get sincere kudos back in response to sharing positivity throughout your company.
Using esteam.life made it really easy to give compliments and share feedback in an informal way. It lowered the barrier to appreciating each other's work, which helped create a more positive and open team dynamic. It was also a great way to get to know colleagues a bit better; the cards added a personal touch that you wouldn't normally get in regular team interactions.
At the same time, it created a safe and constructive atmosphere to later reflect on improvement points together, because there was already a strong foundation of appreciation and trust. All-in-all it was a great way to improve team collaboration across the different roles in the team.
About me
Hi, I'm Mark Monster. I build and run esteam.life on my own.
esteam.life makes it easy for Scrum teams to recognize each other's work. I believe people do their best work together when they feel appreciated, and I built esteam.life to make that appreciation a normal part of every sprint.
Because it's just me, your feedback goes straight to the person who builds the product, and I use it to decide what to improve next. Sign up and start recognizing the people you work with today.
Mark Monster
Frequently asked questions
If you have anything else you want to ask, reach out to me.
What is esteam.life?
esteam.life is a kudos and recognition platform for Scrum teams. Team members send each other kudo cards during the sprint and reveal them together in the retrospective.
What are kudo cards?
Kudo cards are short, positive messages team members send to recognize helpful actions, great work, or moments that made a difference. You can learn more about them here: What are kudo cards?
What do the card designs look like?
There are 14 designs, each with its own theme and emoji, so you can match the card to what you want to recognize. See them all in the kudo card templates gallery.
Can I try esteam.life before committing to it?
Yes! esteam.life comes with a 60-day free trial, no credit card required. For a team on two-week sprints, that's about 4 retros, enough to build the habit of sending and revealing kudos before you decide whether to keep it going. Cancel anytime during the trial at no cost.
Why doesn't esteam.life include feedback, only recognition?
Because I follow the principle: Praise in public, improve in private. esteam.life is for visible, positive recognition. Feedback is important, but best delivered privately, where it can be thoughtful and constructive.
By focusing only on public kudos, esteam.life stays simple, safe, and motivating for everyone.
How does esteam.life work?
esteam.life During the sprint, team members write kudo cards for each other, picking a card design and adding their own message. The cards stay hidden until the retrospective, where the team reveals them together. All kudos stay in one place, so you can look back at them later.
Is esteam.life suitable for teams of all sizes?
Yes. esteam.life works for a single Scrum team and for organizations with many teams, and distributed teams can use it just as well as teams in one office.
How can I get support if I have any questions or issues?
Email me at hello@esteam.life. You'll get an answer from me, the person who builds esteam.life.
Can you help me write a kudo?
Yes. There's a free esteam.life Kudos Coach you can use inside ChatGPT to get help writing thoughtful, specific kudos for different situations.