4Ls Retrospective Template: Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For

The 4Ls retrospective asks the team to sort the sprint into four columns: what we Liked, what we Learned, what we Lacked, and what we Longed For. It's reflective without being emotional, and balanced without being bland. That makes it a good choice after a release or a project phase, or for a mixed group of engineers, designers and product people who want to look back together.

The four columns

Lacked vs Longed For is the distinction that matters most. Lacked looks back: something was missing and it cost you. Longed For looks forward: something you wish existed. If the Longed For column is a copy of Lacked, ask: "What would make next sprint better even if nothing went wrong?"

Where it comes from. Mary Gorman and Ellen Gottesdiener of EBG Consulting described the format in a June 2010 blog post. It began as three Ls (Liked, Lacked, Longed For), which Gorman mentioned at a Deep Agile event. People shared it, and the authors later added Learned. Their original version ran as a World Café, with a poster per L and small groups each clustering one poster.

When to use it (and when not to)

Use it when:

• a release, a launch or a project phase has just ended
• the sprint involved a lot of new work, tools or people
• the group mixes roles and you want a format that doesn't need explaining
• the last few retros were dominated by problems and you want a balanced look

Pick something else when:

• you need a quick, specific fix. 4Ls is broad; Start Stop Continue gets to decisions faster.
• emotions are high. A frustrated team will fill Lacked with anger. Run Mad Sad Glad first.
• you have 30 minutes or less. Four columns need time. Drop Longed For and run the three-L version, or use What Went Well.

How to run it live (50 minutes)

1. Open with follow-through. In the Action Items panel, check the Previous Retro tab. Anything stuck belongs in today's Lacked column.
2. Write silently. Set the shared timer for 10 minutes. Ask for at least one note per column, and at least one Learned note from everyone.
3. Read the positives. Use the All Topics menu to show only Liked, then only Learned, and read them out. Learned notes are often useful to the whole team, not just the author.
4. Group and vote. Drag related Lacked and Longed For notes into groups. Use dot voting with three votes each and sort by Most Votes.
5. Discuss. For each top group, ask: is this something we can fix (Lacked), or something we'd have to build or ask for (Longed For)?
6. Decide. Most actions come from Lacked and Longed For. Liked items can become "keep doing" agreements.

How to run it async over a sprint

4Ls works well async, especially the Learned column. Things you learn mid-sprint ("the invoicing API rate-limits at 100 requests a minute") are forgotten by retro day unless someone writes them down.

1. Day 1: open the board. In Retro Rabbit, the next retro's board opens the moment you click Start New Retro after your last meeting.
2. During the sprint: treat Learned as a "today I learned" log. Add notes on the board, in Quick Notes on the Team Room page, or with /retro your note if you've connected Slack. Turn off Show Name to post without your name shown.
3. Mid-sprint: the facilitator checks that Longed For isn't just a copy of Lacked. If it is, add a forward-looking example of your own.
4. Two days before the end: everyone votes.
5. The day before: the facilitator groups notes and reads the CarrotIQ summary for each column. The Learned summary is worth sharing beyond the team.
6. Retro day: a 25-minute call on the top Lacked and Longed For groups, or an async round where each proposed owner posts a draft action.

More in how to run an async retrospective.

12 example prompts

Liked

1. What did you enjoy working on most?
2. What made collaboration easy this sprint?
3. What would you want a new teammate to experience?

Learned 4. What surprised you about the product or its users? 5. What did you learn from a mistake? 6. What do you know now that would have saved time on day one?

Lacked 7. What information did you need but couldn't get? 8. Where did you lack time, tools, or people? 9. What decision did we lack that slowed us down?

Longed For 10. If you could add one thing to our process, what would it be? 11. What do other teams have that you wish we had? 12. What would make next sprint feel easier, even if nothing goes wrong?

For more, see 60 sprint retrospective questions.

Facilitator tip and a common pitfall

Tip: don't let Learned stay on the board. Learned notes are the most valuable thing a 4Ls retro produces, and the most likely to be forgotten. After the retro, copy the top Learned notes into your team's docs or onboarding notes. The Sprint Summary gives you a short version to paste.

Pitfall: agreeing on what the columns mean only after people have written. If half the team reads Lacked as "what was missing" and the other half as "what we did badly", you get a muddled board. Spend 30 seconds at the start on the definitions in the table above.

How AI helps with this format

On Pro AI (and during the free trial), CarrotIQ handles the admin:

• Group names. Four columns produce a lot of notes. Drag "no test data for invoicing" onto "tested against production copies" and CarrotIQ names the group, for example "Missing Test Data".
• Summaries. The Sprint Summary gives a short summary of each column and an overall summary. The Learned summary is a ready-made "what we learned this sprint" for stakeholders.
• Suggested action items. CarrotIQ Suggest proposes an action from the notes, weighting the most-voted ones and avoiding duplicates of existing items. The team edits it and assigns the owner.

Example action items

Map each column to a kind of action: Liked becomes "keep doing", Learned becomes "write it down", Lacked becomes a fix, and Longed For becomes an experiment or a request.

At the next retro, the Previous Retro tab shows these, and Old / Unresolved Items keeps anything older in view. See retrospective action items that actually get done.

Use this template in Retro Rabbit

1. Start a 14-day free trial. No card is needed.
2. Name your team and choose The Four L's as your retro format.
3. Ask the team to add a Learned note whenever they learn something this sprint.

Prefer the three-L version? Clear the Longed For column in the Team Room settings. See pricing for plans.

Related formats

• What Went Well: similar, with a "What puzzles us?" column
• Sailboat: adds a goal and future risks
• Mad Sad Glad: when feelings come first
• The complete guide to sprint retrospectives
• All retrospective templates