RunsheetAgile

4Ls Retrospective

ComplexityLow

Time45-75 min

Participants3-12

FormatWorkshop

MaturityEstablished

Preparation

What needs to be ready before start

Materials

Whiteboard or Miro with four quadrants (Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For); sticky notes; timer; pre-read with sprint highlights and metrics; action tracker.

People / roles

One facilitator; 3-12 team members; a scribe for consolidation.

Pre-read

Timeframe, typically a sprint or project phase; status of previous actions; list of the key events in the timeframe (releases, incidents, onboarding); a short mood check as pre-check.

Time needed

45-75 min

Setup

Label the four quadrants. Prepare a one-pager as pre-read. Rule: silent work, 2-3 sticky notes per quadrant per person.

Core question

The one question this method answers

What worked well, what did the team learn, what was missing, and what does the team want for the future?

Flow

Marker: Minute

Step	Duration	Action	Hint
10-5 min	5 min	Briefly explain the timeframe and format. Release the pre-read. Rule: each of the four categories gets at least 2 sticky notes per person.	If someone leaves out Liked, the format loses balance. Reminder: Liked and Learned matter just as much as Lacked.
25-20 min	15 min	Silent work: place sticky notes silently in all four quadrants. Phrase them concretely, with examples or incidents.	'Learned' is often the weakest category. The facilitator reminds everyone: what changed in understanding, which assumption was disproved?
320-35 min	15 min	Go around the room and cluster. Make the top topics visible per quadrant.	Cluster by theme, not by agreement. Even single sticky notes can matter if they point to something structural.
435-55 min	20 min	Voting (3 dots per person distributed across all quadrants). Discuss the top 3-4 clusters. Derive an action or insight for each cluster.	'Liked' clusters often call for the action 'continue deliberately, make visible.' 'Learned' calls for sharing knowledge. 'Lacked' and 'Longed For' usually call for concrete change.
555-75 min	20 min	Write up actions: maximum 4 actions with owner, date, and success criterion. Review previous actions. Fix the date of the next retro.	Maximum 4. Otherwise implementation fragments. In a conflict about the number, sponsor or team lead decides.

Artifact

What comes out at the end

Form

Retro entry with timeframe, all sticky notes per quadrant, top clusters, decided actions (owner, date, success criterion), short learning highlights as bullet block, status overview of previous actions, and date of the next retro.

Versioning / ownership

One entry per retro in a series. Transfer actions into the tracking tool. Analyze patterns every six months (recurring lacks, frequent learned themes).

Tool alternatives

Miro or FigJam with a 4Ls template
Retrium, TeamRetro, EasyRetro
Notion page with four sections
Whiteboard photo plus Markdown notes

4ls-retrospective-working-template.md

Compact working template for the 4Ls retrospective with liked, learned, lacked, and longed for items.

4Ls Retrospective Working Template

Goal

Capture what the team liked, learned, lacked, and longed for in a structured review.

Context

Which time frame or event should the team review?

Input

Time frame:
Team or group:
Notes, signals, or examples:

Working area

Liked:
Learned:
Lacked:
Longed for:
Patterns:

Output artifacts

4Ls board:
Learning themes:
Improvement actions:

Open questions

Decision / next step

Owner, date, and success signal.

Example output

Concrete filled scenario, fictional example

4ls-retrospective-beispiel.md

Concrete filled scenario, fictional example

4Ls Retrospective — Team Discovery, Sprint 24 (22.05.2026, 60 min, 7 people)

Liked

Async refinement doc 24 h before the meeting (5 stickies).
Pairing on story 1842 (3 stickies).
Demo on Wednesday with Sabine as test user (4 stickies).

Learned

Sabine wanted CSV export, not inline filters; assumption disproved (5 stickies).
Pairing reduces review cycles by an estimated 30% (3 stickies).
Slack DMs before daily slow down daily preparation (2 stickies).

Lacked

Clear Definition of Done for discovery stories (4 stickies).
Engineer participation in Wednesday user testing (3 stickies).

Longed For

Buddy system for new hires (3 stickies).
Half-day discovery retro at the end of the quarter (2 stickies).

Actions:

DoD template for discovery stories (owner: @anna, by 29.05, success: all sprint-25 stories have a DoD).
At least 1 engineer per user test (owner: @ben, from sprint 25 onward).
Document the pairing highlight in the team wiki (owner: @lisa, by 25.05).
Prepare a buddy-system proposal for the next retro (owner: @marcus).

Positive contributions are celebrated but not systematized.

What to do

For each top Liked cluster, define an action to deliberately continue it or document and share it.

Stop criteria

Done signals checkable in under a minute

Safety is missing, so contributions stay polite.

Actions from previous retros were not implemented, and new actions lose credibility.

The team is larger than 12, so the format becomes unmanageable.

The timeframe is too long (>2 months), so memory fades.

The sponsor expects a hard evaluation, but the format is wrong.

The format is repeated too often (every week), fatigue sets in, and variation is needed.

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