The 4Ls retrospective
A 4Ls retrospective asks four questions: what did we like, what did we learn, what did we lack, and what did we long for. Liked and Lacked are the good and bad columns every format has. Learned and Longed for are the two that keep what a quick retro throws away.
- Prep
- 5 minutes
- Run time
- 60 to 75 minutes
- Group size
- 3 to 12 people
- Best after
- a launch, a migration, or a quarter
The four Ls
The board opens with Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for already in place. Each example is one card from a team that has just finished a three-month migration, so you can see one project read four ways.
Liked
What worked, and what would you fight to keep on the next project? Not praise for its own sake: a practice you want repeated.
Pairing on the migration meant two people could answer questions about it by week two.
Learned
What do you know now that you did not know at the start? Surprises, corrections, and things that turned out to be false.
Our load test does not model retries, so real traffic ran 30 percent above the test.
Lacked
What was missing while you worked? A skill, a person, a tool, a decision, or a piece of information you needed and did not have.
No one owned the data migration, so it moved only when somebody had a spare afternoon.
Longed for
What did you wish existed? Say it even if it is expensive, out of scope, or not yours to build.
A staging database with production-shaped data.
Lacked and Longed for are not the same column
Teams new to 4Ls fill Lacked and leave Longed for almost empty, because the two prompts sound alike. Lacked is about the work you just did: something was missing and it cost you. Longed for is about the work you want next: nothing is broken, you want more than you have. The test is the tense. "We had no owner for the migration" is Lacked. "I want a staging database" is Longed for. Read both prompts aloud before the writing starts and the second column fills up.
How to run a 4Ls retrospective
Six steps across the four phases of the board. This is the slowest of the four formats, and the extra time goes into the discussion.
- Open the board and share the link. Click "Start a retro", pick 4Ls, and type a display name. Copy the share link and send it to the team. A guest opens the link, types a display name, and joins.
- Reflect: fill all four columns. Give the team 10 minutes. Ask for Liked and Learned first, Lacked and Longed for second, because the last two are the ones people censor. Post bodies stay blurred while everyone writes.
- Group: merge the duplicates. Unblur the board and drag cards that say the same thing onto each other. Read Learned aloud before you group it: a lesson two people wrote in different words is the one worth keeping.
- Vote: pick what to discuss. Set a limit of 5 votes per person in the retro settings, because four columns hold more candidates than three. The board shows the vote count on a card and never shows who voted.
- Discuss: split the output in two. Turn Lacked and Longed for cards into action items with an owner and a date. Turn Learned cards into a written note instead, because a lesson has no owner.
- Copy the summary before you close. Open the Summary tab and click "Copy summary". That puts the grouped cards, the vote counts, and the action items on your clipboard as Markdown, before the 24 hours end.
Loved, learned, loathed, longed for
A common variant swaps two of the words: Loved, Learned, Loathed, and Longed for. Same exercise, louder first and third prompt. Loved asks what you would fight to keep, a higher bar than Liked. Loathed asks what you resented, which pulls stronger cards than Lacked.
Looptro ships Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for, and an anonymous retro cannot rename a column. If your team says loathed, tell them to read Lacked as Loathed. The prompt in the facilitator's mouth does more work than the word on the board.
When to reach for 4Ls
Use it at the end of something: a launch, a migration, a quarter, or a project the team is about to leave. Those are the moments where knowledge disappears, and Learned plus Longed for catch it. Use it for a first retro with a new team, where you want a wide read rather than three quick decisions. Do not use it every sprint. Four columns and 75 minutes for two ordinary weeks turns the retro into a tax, and the Learned column starts producing filler.
The other three formats
- Start, Stop, Continue
- The fast default. Three columns that already read as decisions, for a routine sprint you want to close in 45 minutes.
- Mad, Sad, Glad
- Asks how the sprint felt before it asks what to do. Use it after a rough sprint, when the mood is the thing nobody has said out loud.
- Sailboat (Wind, Anchors, Rocks, Island)
- A picture instead of a list. Use it when the team needs to talk about risk and about the goal, not only about the last two weeks.
All four run with no account. The no-login page states what an anonymous retro gives you and what it costs you.
Questions about the 4Ls retrospective
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What is a 4Ls retrospective?
- A 4Ls retrospective is a team review with four columns: Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for. Liked holds what went well. Learned holds what the team now knows that it did not know before. Lacked holds what was missing. Longed for holds what the team wanted and did not have. The Learned column is what separates it from the quick formats, because it keeps knowledge that a two-column good and bad list drops.
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What does 4Ls mean?
- The four Ls are Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for. Each one is a prompt, not a category to sort finished thoughts into. Liked asks what you want to keep. Learned asks what surprised you. Lacked asks what was missing while you worked. Longed for asks what you wished existed.
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What are liked, learned, lacked, longed for examples?
- Liked: "pairing on the migration meant two people could answer questions about it by week two". Learned: "our load test does not model retries, so real traffic ran 30 percent above the test". Lacked: "no one owned the data migration, so it moved only when someone had a spare afternoon". Longed for: "a staging database with production-shaped data". A good card names the thing and its effect, so the team can act on it.
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Is it loved, learned, loathed, and longed for?
- That is the same format under other words. Some teams run Loved, Learned, Loathed, and Longed for, which sharpens the first and third prompts: Loved asks what you would fight to keep, and Loathed asks what you resented. Looptro ships the board with Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for. Read Lacked as Loathed if your team prefers the stronger word. The four prompts do the same work.
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How long does a 4Ls retrospective take?
- Budget 60 to 75 minutes for a team of 3 to 12 people, and 5 minutes of prep. Four columns take longer to fill than three, and the Longed for column produces the discussion that runs over. Give writing 10 minutes, grouping 10, voting 5, and discussion the rest. Run 4Ls at a milestone or a launch rather than every sprint.
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When should I use 4Ls instead of another retrospective?
- Use 4Ls after a launch, a migration, a quarter, or a project that a team is about to leave behind, because Learned and Longed for capture things the team would otherwise forget. Use a shorter format for a routine sprint. Use Mad, Sad, Glad when the mood matters more than the record, and Sailboat when the risk ahead matters more than the work behind.
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Do I need an account to run a 4Ls retrospective?
- No. Click "Start a retro" on this page, pick 4Ls, type a display name, and share the link. Guests join with a display name only. Looptro deletes the retro 24 hours after you create it. A 4Ls retro is the one you most want to keep, so open the Summary tab and copy the summary as Markdown before the window ends.
Start a 4Ls retro
The board opens with Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for in place. Share one link and the team joins as guests. This is the format you most want to keep, so copy the summary as Markdown before Looptro deletes the retro 24 hours after you create it.