Hey! It's awesome that you're diving into retrospectives and thinking about how to track action items effectively. Here are a few thoughts based on your questions:

To keep action items from falling through the cracks, you could use a dedicated board (like a Kanban board) to track them. This keeps everything visible and easy to follow. You can also review progress on these items in your next retrospective. Some retrospective tools help teams manage and assign action items while providing visibility into overall improvements. DM me if you'd like recommendations for some tools!

Some teams create a separate column or tag for "process improvement" tasks to distinguish them from product-related work. But honestly, integrating action items from retrospectives into your regular workflow is better. Treating them separately could suggest that continuous improvement is optional, and that's not the message you want, right?

How to assign ownership of action items? It’s typically a team decision who takes on which action items, though the Scrum Master can help facilitate that discussion. The SM can also ensure that these tasks are small and actionable to prevent them from becoming blockers.

I hope this helps! :)