Keep farewell emails short with personal anecdotes

Should I send a rather long farewell email with personal anecdotes or not?

Yes, but keep it short. A farewell email with a few well-chosen anecdotes can strengthen professional relationships and leave a positive final impression. The key is balance: personal enough to feel genuine, brief enough that people actually read it.

When personal anecdotes work

Including a specific memory or two makes your farewell stick. This works best when:

• You've worked closely with the person or team for years. A shared sprint retrospective or a moment when the team shipped something hard together matters more than generic thanks.
• You're highlighting a specific team win or lesson learned. "Remember when we cut our cycle time from 21 days to 14?" beats "great working with you."
• You want to acknowledge someone's growth. "I watched you go from hesitant in standups to leading the refinement session" is memorable.

Why brevity wins

Long emails don't get read. In busy Scrum environments, people skim. A 300-word farewell sits in the inbox. A 100-word one gets read on the commute home.

Focus on two or three key moments instead of a narrative arc. Respect your colleagues' time by being direct. One specific anecdote beats five generic ones.

The structure that works

First paragraph: say thank you and name one thing you learned from them or the team. Second paragraph: one concrete memory. Third: where you're headed and how you'll stay in touch. Done.

We've seen Scrum Masters and Product Owners do this well. They don't write memoirs. They write notes. ThinkLouder has trained over 55,000 practitioners since 2001, and the ones who maintain their networks longest are the ones who communicate clearly and briefly.

For more on how communication shapes team outcomes, check our post on avoiding blame in project status and outcomes. Clear, honest communication matters just as much in a farewell as it does in a sprint review.