How the three phases work
The board opens in the writing phase. Everyone types cards into the three columns at the same time, and while that lasts you can only see your own text. Other people show up as a face-down count, so nobody reads the first card posted and quietly writes a version of it. That is the part most retro tools get wrong: if the board is visible while people write, the first few cards set the agenda and the quieter half of the team ends up agreeing instead of contributing.
When the writing slows down, anyone can move the board to voting. The server reveals every card and shuffles the order inside each column, so position gives no hint about who wrote what. Each person gets five dots and can stack more than one on a card they feel strongly about. Totals update live, which is fine: what stays hidden is who voted, not how many votes a card has.
The discussion phase sorts each column by votes and highlights the top card. Work down from there and stop when the time is up rather than forcing every card. Cards in the action column get a checkbox so you can mark the ones the team actually committed to, then copy the whole board as markdown into your notes or ticket tracker.