What Should a DM ask Himself/Herself after a Session with New Players?

A user named Visimicus asked a good question over on Reddit that I wanted to make a blog article.

What questions should I ask myself after a night of playing as a DM? 

Every group is different so look back on your sessions and ask the following questions.

1. How was the role-play:combat mix? – some groups
   like more combat and less role-play others a just the
   opposite. My group still likes 4e style skill
   challenges so I moved them forward to our 5e games.
   Some groups hate puzzles, some like them. Keep your
   pulse on the mix.
2. How was the DM exposition:inter-PC role play mix?
   – I found at first my players will just interact with me
   so I do things to put them in situations to encourage
   them to discuss, in character, things with each other.
   Good DM moments are when you realize you have been
   playing for 20 minutes and haven’t said a word.
3. What was going on when it seemed like the players
   were having the most fun? – Yea, do more of that. One
   player who is always quiet ended up getting challenged
   in a one on one fight and ended up with excellent roles
   killing his opponent before taking a single hit. I have
   never seen the player smile so much. Bingo!
4. What slugged the game down and what can be done to
   speed that part up? – I sometimes create one page
   cheat sheets and hand them out that contain info that
   they struggle with like combat actions or skills
   explanations or rules of the skills challenge if they
   different from my standard rules. If I am expecting
   mounted or underwater combat or there is a map with
   special terrain rules then I will have those printed out
   so we aren’t delving into the PHB.
5. What did they say after the game (and even before
   the game)? – The DM is always playing. In between
   games, before the game, at the break, after the game.
   Ears always open.
6. Who had their day-in-the-sun? Who needs their
   moment to shine? How can you provide that? – Make sure
   you spread the love around. Who hasn’t seen it for a
   while. Yea, Aivel got his 1v1 and Dax the Bard stole
   the RP scene and Willow found a shiny trinket but Curnan
   got left out this session so lets make sure there is
   something for him next session. How has “treasure” been
   spread out?
7. What parts did you struggle with? – not a session
   has ended where I didn’t have something I did well and
   something I did not do well and need to improve upon.
8. What can you do in your prep to mitigate this
   during the next session? – Struggled with NPC names,
   have a list of some next time. Struggled in
   description, update your room/setting notes to include
   sights, sounds and smells. Struggled with managing your
   NPC in a battle, how can you included them as a special
   boon instead that you give to the players (On Dyntas
   round, he will immobilize one enemy each turn for one
   turn, players track this)
9. What can you surprise them with in the next session
   that they haven’t seen before?
   1. Battle map with special terrain
   2. Battle map with a fair escape
   3. Combo Combat/Skills Challenge encounter
   4. In game gambling game
   5. Something super silly/funny – attack by goblins who
      think they are immortal who have built a seige engine
      out of bamboo and an uncooperative cow.
   6. Switch from encounter built adventure to a classic
      dungeon crawl
   7. Try a mystery
   8. Puzzle
   9. Riddle