The 4Ls retrospective strikes a balance between celebrating progress and uncovering opportunities, making it ideal for teams that value both reflection and continuous improvement. This guide explores how the method works, why it’s effective, and includes free templates to help you run your own 4Ls session.
What is the 4Ls Retrospective?
The 4Ls Retrospective is a simple reflection framework used by agile teams to look back on a sprint, project, or workflow and capture feedback in four categories: Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed For. It helps teams celebrate what went well, identify new insights, surface gaps or challenges, and express aspirations for the future. Because it’s structured yet flexible, the 4Ls makes it easy to guide discussions, encourage participation, and turn reflections into actionable improvements.
The 4Ls Retrospective Categories
Liked – Things the team enjoyed or appreciated during the sprint or project. Highlights, wins, or practices that worked well.
Learned – New insights, skills, or lessons gained. Could be about processes, tools, collaboration, or customer feedback.
Lacked – Resources, support, or information that were missing and made work harder. Gaps that slowed progress.
Longed For – Aspirations or wishes for the future. Improvements, opportunities, or tools the team would like to have next time.
When to Use the 4Ls Retrospective
Sprint Reviews
Agile teams often run 4Ls retrospectives at the end of a sprint to reflect on their work. The framework helps them celebrate what went well, capture lessons about tools or processes, identify blockers that slowed progress, and set improvement goals for the next sprint.
Project Wrap-ups
Once a project is completed, teams can use the 4Ls to look back on the entire journey. It’s a simple way to document achievements, share learnings across departments, and identify gaps in planning or execution that should be avoided in future projects.
Cross-functional Collaboration
When multiple departments (like marketing, product, and sales) work together, a 4Ls retrospective can highlight how well collaboration flowed, uncover new perspectives gained, and surface role or priority conflicts. This strengthens alignment for future joint initiatives.
Remote Team Check-ins
Distributed or hybrid teams can use 4Ls retrospectives to share how remote communication and workflows are working. They help uncover challenges like time zone gaps or inconsistent tool use while giving space to suggest improvements like better rituals or streamlined processes.
Leadership Reflections
Leadership and management teams can benefit by using the 4Ls to assess big-picture topics like decision-making, organizational culture, and resource allocation. It helps highlight where leadership is succeeding, what lessons they’ve gained, and where they need to provide clearer vision or stronger support.
Personal Development
Individuals can adapt the 4Ls for self-reflection or one-on-one sessions. It’s a useful way to track progress on personal goals, reflect on skills learned, recognize areas where mentorship or support was lacking, and set aspirations for future growth.
Creative reviews
For design, UX, or R&D teams, the 4Ls is an effective way to reflect on innovative work. Teams can celebrate ideas that worked, share lessons from user testing or prototyping, acknowledge where resources or clarity were missing, and define what creative opportunities they want to explore next.
Benefits of Using the 4Ls Method for Retrospectives
Balanced Perspectives
Unlike some retrospectives that only focus on what went wrong, the 4Ls ensures balance by including positives (Liked), lessons (Learned), gaps (Lacked), and future aspirations (Longed For). This well-rounded view helps teams appreciate successes while still identifying areas for growth.
Encourages Equal Participation
The structured categories give everyone an easy entry point into the conversation. Even quieter team members who might hesitate in open discussions can contribute specific reflections in each quadrant, making the session more inclusive.
Simple and Time-efficient
The 4Ls framework is easy to understand and quick to set up. It doesn’t require complex preparation, so teams can run meaningful retrospectives in a short amount of time, making it practical for fast-paced workflows.
Promotes Psychological Safety
Because the framework focuses on experiences rather than blame, it creates a safe space for honest feedback. Team members feel more comfortable sharing both challenges and aspirations, which leads to more authentic discussions.
Action-oriented Outcomes
The retrospective naturally flows into concrete improvements. Insights captured in the Lacked and Longed For categories, when paired with discussions, can be translated into actionable steps that move the team forward.
Adaptable Across Contexts
The 4Ls isn’t limited to agile teams and can be applied to leadership reviews, personal development check-ins, or cross-functional collaboration. Its simplicity makes it easy to adapt to any scenario where reflection is needed.
Drives continuous improvement
By running 4Ls retrospectives regularly, teams and individuals build a habit of structured reflection. Over time, this continuous cycle of feedback and adjustment strengthens performance, collaboration, and long-term growth.
Tips to Perform a 4Ls Retrospective
Set clear expectations – Start by reminding the team of the purpose. This is to reflect on what was Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed For, and to turn insights into improvements.
Use a template for structure – A ready-to-use template keeps the session organized and ensures everyone contributes under the right categories.
Create a safe space – Encourage honest input by making it clear that the session isn’t about blame, but about learning and improving together.
Encourage equal participation – Invite everyone to add notes, even quieter members. Digital boards or anonymous contributions can help balance voices.
Group and discuss ideas – Cluster similar reflections to spot patterns, then discuss them as a team to uncover root causes or themes.
Focus on action items – End the session by identifying clear next steps. Assign ownership and timelines so improvements don’t get lost.
Keep it time-boxed – Limit the session (e.g., 30–60 minutes) to keep energy high and discussions productive.
Follow up regularly – Review the action items in your next retrospective to close the loop and show progress.
Complete Your 4Ls Retrospective with an AI-Powered Template
Take your retrospective sessions a step further with Creately’s AI 4Ls Retrospective Template. Instead of starting from a blank canvas, Creately’s AI helps generate ideas, surface hidden insights, and suggest discussion points tailored to your team’s input. With a simple prompt, you can instantly capture what was Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed For. Then refine, organize, and assign action items directly on the canvas. This makes your retrospectives faster, more focused, and far more actionable, helping your teams move from reflection to real improvement without missing a beat.
Free Templates for 4Ls Retrospectives
Helpful Resources for Retrospectives
Discover Creately’s ready-to-use and free 4Ls retro templates.
Find how Creately’s retrospective software can help you run retro meetings.
Discover templates for all types of different retrospective frameworks.
FAQs about the 4Ls Retrospective Method
What’s the goal of doing a 4Ls Retrospective?
Who can use the 4Ls Retrospective?
Why is the 4Ls method effective?
How often should the 4Ls retrospective be conducted?
Resources
Ayub, Nimra, et al. Student Experiences in a Distributed, Hybrid Global Software Engineering Course. 5 June 2023, pp. 210–214, https://doi.org/10.1145/3593663.3593691.
Ramalho, Bárbara, et al. “The Kite” Breathing Serious Game: Agile Co-Design for Psoriatic Arthritis. 25 June 2024, pp. 1036–1041, https://doi.org/10.1109/melecon56669.2024.10608739.
