Templates · Essentials

Love, Want, Hate, Learn

Four sentence openers in the first person that bring out strong opinions, wishes and discoveries.

What it is

Each column is the beginning of a sentence that the card finishes: I love, I want to, I hate, now I know that. Everything is said in the first person, and the words are strong on purpose.

Goal

Honest, personal statements in place of general remarks. The team learns what each member cares about, wants and cannot stand, and shares what the sprint taught.

When to use it

• When the cards have become impersonal, of the kind “communication could be better”.
• With a team whose members know each other well and can take a blunt sentence.
• When you want individual wishes heard, not only the team’s problems.

When to pick another format

I hate… invites the unfiltered version. In a team with little trust or an open conflict, it can hurt more than it helps: Likes, Wishes, Wonders asks for similar things in a softer voice, and a Safety Check tells you beforehand how freely people will speak.

How to run it

Ask everyone to write full sentences that start with the words of the column.

1. I love… What each person genuinely enjoys about how the team works.
2. I want to… A change the person wants, phrased as their own wish: “I want to pair more often”, not “we should pair”.
3. I hate… What frustrates them, in the honest version. One rule: a card is about a situation or a practice, never about a person.
4. Now I know that… A discovery from this sprint that the whole team should share.

Group and vote. Start the discussion with I hate… and I want to… together: a frustration and a wish are often two sides of one subject, and the wish is already half the solution. Turn the most voted into actions with an owner and a date. Close by reading Now I know that… aloud, and end on I love…

Columns

To start a retrospective from this template, see Create a retro.