What's the difference between Lacked and Longed for?

Lacked is missing in the present tense. 'We Lacked a clear sign-off process.' Longed for is a wish that may or may not be possible. 'We Longed for fewer interrupts', or 'We Longed for someone, anyone, to own the design system.' Lacked tends to produce concrete next steps, Longed for tends to produce direction.

Can we use 4Ls for a quarterly retro?

Yes, and it's one of the better choices. Stretch the canonical 45 minutes to 90, give each column 15 minutes of silent writing, and commit to one bigger initiative per Lacked rather than four sprint-sized ones. The 4Ls scales without breaking. Most formats don't.

What if the Liked column is empty?

Push back gently. An empty Liked column is almost never accurate. It usually means people are tired and skimming. Ask 'name one moment you'd want to remember in six months' and wait. If after a minute it's still empty, that isn't a missed prompt, it's data about the team's state, and it belongs in Lacked.

Is 4Ls a Scrum thing?

No. It predates Scrum and works for any team that ships in cycles. It's particularly common in design and research teams where the qualitative texture of the work matters as much as the deliverables. Engineering teams sometimes treat it as soft, then run it once and discover Learned is the most useful column they've ever had.

Should we cap items per column?

Three to five. The 4Ls is a discussion format more than a voting format, so the volume of cards matters less than the quality of the discussion they produce. Pick the items that have energy in the room, not the ones that won the popularity contest.

The toolkit · 4Ls

4Ls retrospective

Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for. The format that surfaces feelings and facts, not just action items.

40 prompts · 4 columns · free

❤️

Liked

What did you genuinely enjoy this sprint?

10 prompts in this bucket

💡

Learned

What did you learn this sprint that you didn't know two weeks ago?

10 prompts in this bucket

🕳️

Lacked

What did we need this sprint that we didn't have?

10 prompts in this bucket

✨

Longed for

What do you wish were true about how we work?

10 prompts in this bucket

Try another framework

Frameworks that pair well with 4Ls.

Start, Stop, Continue

The classic. Three columns, fast to run, hard to argue with.

Mad, Sad, Glad

Emotional check-in. Surfaces the stuff data can't see.

Rose, Bud, Thorn

What's blooming, what's growing, what's prickly. Garden metaphor, real insight.

Or see all 10 retro frameworks.

About the 4Ls retrospective

The 4Ls (Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for) is the retro for the sprint where something more than work happened. A hard release. A difficult disagreement. A project that landed differently than anyone expected. The launch that everyone said would be fine, and was, technically, fine. Where Start, Stop, Continue asks 'what changes?', the 4Ls asks 'what did this sprint feel like, and what did you actually take from it?'. The Learned column is the part that stops it being a group therapy session. It's where the team's mental models quietly update. Lacked and Longed for sit next to each other on purpose: Lacked names a gap in the present, Longed for names a wish for the future. Together they produce changes that come from the team, not from process, which is why 4Ls commitments tend to be the ones people actually keep.

How long does a 4Ls retro take?

Forty-five minutes for a two-week sprint. The format expands easily: a quarterly 4Ls at 90 minutes works because it scales without losing its shape. Below 30 minutes it starts to feel rushed, and the Learned column is the first thing teams skip when time runs short, which is exactly the column that distinguishes a 4Ls from a group therapy session. Hold the time.

When the 4Ls works better than Start, Stop, Continue

After a release. After a hard sprint. After onboarding a new joiner. After a re-org. Any sprint where what people felt is part of what happened. Start, Stop, Continue is great at producing actions. The 4Ls is better at producing the conversation that explains why those actions are needed in the first place. Run a 4Ls when you suspect the team has things to say that don't fit neatly into 'Start' or 'Stop', and when 'Continue' would be doing a lot of work to mean 'we survived'.

How to run a 4Ls async

Open a doc Monday with the four headings. Each person adds at least one card per column by Wednesday. Pair people up for fifteen minutes Thursday morning, then a thirty-minute group call Thursday afternoon to focus on Lacked and Longed for. Pairs replace silent writing well, and the doc preserves the Liked and Learned content for people who want to revisit it next month when they've forgotten what was good about this sprint.

Facilitator notes for the 4Ls

Defend the Liked column. Teams under pressure want to skip it and get to what's broken, but Liked is where the team rebuilds the ground that the rest of the conversation has to stand on. Watch for fixation on Lacked at the expense of Longed for. Lacked alone tends to produce blame, where Longed for is where the team imagines a better version of itself. Keep the conversation moving toward what to build, not just what to torch.

Frequently asked

What's the difference between Lacked and Longed for?: Lacked is missing in the present tense. 'We Lacked a clear sign-off process.' Longed for is a wish that may or may not be possible. 'We Longed for fewer interrupts', or 'We Longed for someone, anyone, to own the design system.' Lacked tends to produce concrete next steps, Longed for tends to produce direction.
Can we use 4Ls for a quarterly retro?: Yes, and it's one of the better choices. Stretch the canonical 45 minutes to 90, give each column 15 minutes of silent writing, and commit to one bigger initiative per Lacked rather than four sprint-sized ones. The 4Ls scales without breaking. Most formats don't.
What if the Liked column is empty?: Push back gently. An empty Liked column is almost never accurate. It usually means people are tired and skimming. Ask 'name one moment you'd want to remember in six months' and wait. If after a minute it's still empty, that isn't a missed prompt, it's data about the team's state, and it belongs in Lacked.
Is 4Ls a Scrum thing?: No. It predates Scrum and works for any team that ships in cycles. It's particularly common in design and research teams where the qualitative texture of the work matters as much as the deliverables. Engineering teams sometimes treat it as soft, then run it once and discover Learned is the most useful column they've ever had.
Should we cap items per column?: Three to five. The 4Ls is a discussion format more than a voting format, so the volume of cards matters less than the quality of the discussion they produce. Pick the items that have energy in the room, not the ones that won the popularity contest.

When not to use it

Pure execution check-ins where the team needs a quick decision and not a conversation. If you have fifteen minutes and a clear blocker, run Start, Stop, Continue or Lean Coffee. The 4Ls rewards giving it time, and punishes you for trying to force it into a coffee break.

How to run a 4Ls retro

1Block 45 minutes. The 4Ls has more emotional surface area than Start, Stop, Continue, so give the discussion room.
2Open with a 90-second sprint recap. Name the hard parts out loud, not just the deliverables.
3Show all four prompts. Five minutes of silent writing per quadrant, in order. Liked first sets the tone.
4Discuss in pairs for ten minutes before opening to the full group. Pairs surface things people don't volunteer in a circle.
5Group discussion, twelve minutes total. Spend most of it on Lacked and Longed for, that's where the change is.
6Identify two changes for the next sprint. One that addresses a Lacked, one that moves toward a Longed for. Assign owners.
7Close with a round of explicit appreciations from the Liked column. Names matter. Send the recap in Slack within the hour.