4Ls Retrospective (Liked, Learned, Lacked)
A deep-dive format that uncovers hidden needs and turns every sprint into a learning loop.
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The board
01
LIKED
What did you enjoy?
02
LACKED
What was missing?
03
LEARNED
What did you learn?
The 4Ls — Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for — is a reflection-heavy format that treats the sprint as a learning experience rather than just a delivery window. It was designed to answer a question simple formats miss: what did we discover, and what were we missing?
The Lacked column is the quiet star. Teams rarely get asked 'what was missing?' directly, and the answers — missing context, missing tooling, missing decisions — are usually the root causes behind the symptoms other retro formats collect.
When to use a 4Ls Retrospective
- End of a project phase, quarter, or milestone — anywhere reflection beats speed
- After adopting a new technology, process, or team structure
- When recent retros produced shallow cards and you want more depth
- Onboarding retrospectives: what did new joiners lack in their first weeks?
How to run a 4Ls Retrospective
- 1
Ask for learnings someone else could use
A good Learned card is a sentence another team could act on: "feature flags let us ship the migration in small steps", not "learned a lot".
- 2
Read Liked before Lacked
Start the discussion with what people liked. It sets the tone, and it often explains why some of the Lacked cards hurt.
- 3
Turn each Lacked card into a request
For the top Lacked cards, ask what would have filled the gap and who could provide it. A missing test environment is a request to someone, not just a complaint.
- 4
Decide where each learning goes
For every strong Learned card, pick a home: a team agreement, a doc, a note for the next onboarding. Learnings that stay on the board are forgotten by the next sprint.
Anonymous writing, voting, grouping and action items work the same as in any Retromik retro.
Example cards
What good cards look like for a software team. Specific, about the work, never about a person.
LIKED
- The onboarding doc saved the new joiner a dozen questions.
- Shorter standups since we moved updates to the board.
- Working directly with the customer on the import bug.
LACKED
- A test environment with realistic data.
- Time to finish the refactor we started.
- Clear priorities when two stakeholders asked for different things.
LEARNED
- Feature flags let us ship the migration in small steps.
- The slow page was a missing database index, not the frontend.
- Estimates improve when the tester joins refinement.
A 45-minute agenda
- 0–5 minExplain the columns and what a useful learning looks like
- 5–15 minWrite cards silently
- 15–20 minVote, three votes each
- 20–35 minDiscuss: Liked first, then the top Lacked and Learned cards
- 35–45 minAgree actions and where each learning will live
Common mistakes
- Learned cards that are too vague to reuse. Ask for the specific thing that was learned.
- Lacked turning into a wish list of things outside the team's reach.
- Treating Liked as small talk and skipping it.
- Leaving the learnings on the board. Write them down somewhere the team will see them again.
Frequently asked questions
What does 4Ls stand for in a retrospective?
Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for. The team reflects on what they enjoyed, what they discovered, what was missing, and what they wished they had. Retromik's template uses three columns — Liked, Lacked, Learned — with 'longed for' prompts folded into the Lacked discussion.
How is 4Ls different from Start, Stop, Continue?
Start, Stop, Continue collects behaviour changes; 4Ls collects understanding. 4Ls is better when you need to know why things happened — the learning and the gaps — before deciding what to change. Many teams alternate between the two.
How long does a 4Ls retrospective take?
Plan for 60 minutes with a team of 5-8: the Learned and Lacked columns generate deeper discussion than lightweight formats, so give the discussion phase at least 25-30 minutes.
Can I run a 4Ls retro asynchronously?
Yes. Share the board link and let people add anonymous cards over a day or two, then meet for 30 minutes to vote, discuss the top cards, and commit to actions.
What makes a good Learned card?
One that someone else could act on without having been there. "Splitting stories under three points made the sprint more predictable" is useful; "we learned about planning" isn't. If a learning applies beyond the team, share it.
Related templates
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ViewSailboat Retrospective
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