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| Criterion | ![]() Agile Mad Sad Glad | ![]() Agile Sprint Retrospective | ![]() Operations After-Action Review | ![]() Agile 4Ls Retrospective |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a team's or workshop's mood needs to become readable, it structures emotional signals with little setup. It makes strain, relief, and sources of energy tangible. | When a sprint is over and friction shouldn't simply be carried forward, it opens the view onto collaboration and patterns. It creates space to see causes and changes together. | After missions or project phases with unclear outcomes, the method makes visible what actually happened and what can be learned from it. It separates course, effect, and causes so experience turns into solid improvement. | When a sprint should not only be assessed but also learned from, it captures experience in clear learning categories. It records what worked, what's missing, and what should run differently next time. |
Complexitysame | Low | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 30-60 min | Up to 3 hours for a one-month Sprint; shorter Sprints are usually shorter | 20-45 min | 45–75 min |
Participantsdifferent | 3-10 | Scrum Team | 3-12 | Team members involved |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Emotion Board, Themes, Action Items | Improvement actions, Team agreements | Lessons learned, Action items, Event summary | 4Ls Board, Learning Themes, Improvement Actions |
Tagsno overlap | RetrospectiveTeamReflection | RetrospectiveImprovementLearning | LearningOperationsImprovement | RetrospectiveLearningReflectionTeam |



