Templates · Essentials

3 Ls (Like, Learned, Lacked)

A quick review of the sprint through what people appreciated, what they learned and what was missing.

What it is

Three columns: like, learned, lacked. In place of a column of problems, the format asks what was missing: information, time, access or a decision. The wording points at a gap to fill, not at a fault.

Goal

The team knows what to keep, what the sprint taught it, and which missing things it has to obtain before the next one.

When to use it

• For a regular sprint and a short session.
• With a team that is learning a lot: a new product, a new system, new members.
• When the problems column has turned into blame: “lacked” asks what was absent, not who failed.

When to pick another format

The format has no place for what was present and harmful, such as a habit that gets in the way: Start, Stop, Continue has a column for that. For a period longer than a sprint, Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for adds the wishes that go beyond the team.

How to run it

1. Like: ask what each person appreciated about the sprint.
2. Learned: ask for new knowledge, about the product, the system or the team.
3. Lacked: ask what was missing. Have people name the thing and the moment it was needed: “the access to the staging logs on the day of the release” says more than “access”.

Group the cards and vote, mostly on Lacked. For each of the most voted cards, ask who can provide what was missing, inside or outside the team. The action is to obtain it, with an owner and a date. Then read Learned together and pick what should be written down or shown to the rest of the team. Like needs no action: it tells you what not to break.

Columns

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