KALM Retrospective Template: Keep, Add, Less and More

KALM asks the team to sort its practices into four columns: Keep, Add, Less and More. Instead of asking what went well and what didn't, it asks how much of each thing you should be doing. That makes it a good fit for a team whose process mostly works and needs tuning, not an overhaul.

The four columns

Less is not Stop. A Less note says the practice has value but the dose is wrong: the team still wants a standup, just not a 25-minute one. For every Less and More note, ask: what's the right amount?

Where it comes from. No single person is credited with KALM. Three of its columns match Patrick Kua's Starfish retrospective from 2006 (Keep doing, More of, Less of), and Add does the job of Starfish's Start doing. Nobody has a documented claim to the four-column version or its name.

When to use it (and when not to)

Use it when:

• the process works and you want to adjust it: how long standup runs, how much pairing, how often you deploy
• you changed a practice recently, such as moving to daily deploys, and want to know if you went too far
• the team is tired of hunting for problems and wants a retro that isn't about what's broken

Pick something else when:

• something actually went wrong, like an outage or a missed release. KALM has no column for it. Use What Went Well or a 5 Whys session.
• a practice needs to go, not shrink. Without a Stop column, people soften "stop" into "less". Run DAKI or Start Stop Continue.
• the team is new and has no settled habits to tune. Start with Hopes and Fears.

How to run it live (30 minutes)

1. Check last retro's changes. Open the Action Items panel. The Previous Retro tab shows what you agreed last time, and Old / Unresolved Items shows anything older that's still open. If you capped standup at 15 minutes, did it hold?
2. Write silently. Set the timer for seven minutes. Ask people to put an amount in Less and More notes where they can: "twice a week", not "more often".
3. Group duplicates. Drag notes that say the same thing onto each other. Then look across columns for the same practice in both Less and More. Two people wanting opposite amounts is the most useful thing on the board.
4. Vote. Use dot voting with three votes each, then sort by Most Votes.
5. Discuss the dials first. For each top More and Less note: what's the right amount, and how will we know? Then Add (what will it replace?), and Keep last, briefly.
6. Decide with numbers. "Standup capped at 15 minutes" can be checked at the next retro. "Less standup" can't.

How to run it async over a sprint

KALM notes come from noticing amounts, like the third meeting about the same thing. Write them down the moment they happen.

1. Day 1: click Start New Retro after your last retro so the board is open all sprint. Add a Keep note for each change agreed last time, so people can react to it.
2. During the sprint: add notes on the board or from Quick Notes on the dashboard. Write the amount you saw: "Wednesday sync ran 50 minutes again" goes in Less.
3. Mid-sprint: check the balance. All Less and no More usually means people feel overloaded. Ask what deserves more time.
4. Two days before the end: everyone votes.
5. The day before: the facilitator groups duplicates and reads the CarrotIQ Sprint Summary for each column.
6. Retro day: a 15-minute call to set the numbers for the top More and Less notes. Or post the top three in writing with a proposed amount, and each owner accepts or adjusts it.

See how to run an async retrospective for the full playbook.

10 example prompts

Keep

1. What did we change recently that's working at its current level?
2. What would you defend if someone proposed cutting it?

Add 3. What did another team try this quarter that we should copy? 4. What tool or habit did you wish we had at some point this sprint?

Less 5. Which meeting could be half as long and lose nothing? 6. Where do we put more process on small work than it needs? 7. What did you spend time on that nobody used?

More 8. What helped the most, but only happened once or twice? 9. Where would a little more effort now save a lot later: tests, docs, pairing? 10. Who should we be talking to more often?

Facilitator tip and a common pitfall

Tip: ask "how much?" before the vote. "More code review" can mean faster reviews, more reviewers or deeper reviews. Ask authors to add a number or a frequency first. "Do more testing" changes nothing; "add a test to every bug fix PR" does.

Pitfall: Less as a polite Stop. Teams use Less to avoid saying a meeting is useless. If three people write Less about the same ritual, ask directly: should we drop it? If the answer is yes, that's a fine outcome, even though KALM has no column for it.

How AI helps with this format

On Pro AI (and during the free trial), CarrotIQ takes care of the admin:

• Group names. Drag "standup runs long" onto "status updates belong on the board" in the Less column, and CarrotIQ names the group, for example "Standup Length".
• Summaries. The Sprint Summary covers each column plus the whole retro. If the same practice shows up in the Less summary sprint after sprint, the change isn't sticking.
• Suggested action items. CarrotIQ Suggest drafts an action from the notes, weighting the most-voted ones and skipping actions you already have. Add the number yourself before you assign it.

Example action items

Every KALM action should say how much, so the next retro can check it.

The next retro opens with these in the Previous Retro tab. More in 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. Pick KALM from the format library: choose "Browse all formats" when you create your Team Room, or later in the Team Room's Settings.
3. Ask the team to put a number in every Less and More note, so the retro ends with changes you can check.

See pricing for plans.

Related formats

• Starfish: KALM plus Stop doing, when something needs to go
• DAKI: Drop and Improve instead of Less and More, for pruning
• KPT: three columns, when you'd rather name problems than tune amounts
• Start Stop Continue: fewer columns and more decisive
• More formats in Remote and async
• All retrospective templates