AI 4Ls Retrospective Template

Use AI 4Ls retrospective template to reflect on a completed project, align teams and improve outcomes. Generate your AI 4Ls retrospective instantly, customize on an infinite canvas, and share insights with your team. Export your 4Ls retrospective board to PDF, PNG, or Excel for presentations.

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When to Use the AI 4Ls Retrospective Template

Use AI 4Ls retrospective template in scenarios where reflection on a past project drives improvement.

At the end of each sprint, teams can run an AI 4Ls retrospective to capture what they Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for, auto-suggesting action items.
During quarterly team health assessments, the 4Ls retrospective board can highlight trends over time, simplifying strategic planning and resource allocation.
For completed projects, apply the 4Ls retrospective to analyze successes and gaps, then group similar feedback visually for continuous improvement.
Remote or hybrid teams can benefit from async commenting and voting within Creately’s infinite canvas, making 4Ls review sessions flexible and inclusive.

How to Create AI 4Ls Retrospective Template in Creately

The AI 4Ls retrospective template workflow in Creately simplifies retrospectives with AI collaboration.

Step 1: Click the ‘Generate With AI’ Button on this page

This will open a prompt window powered by Creately’s AI-Powered Visual Intelligence. You can enter your instructions for the AI to start generating the 4Ls retrospective.

Step 2: Enter your Prompt

Enter your team’s ideas, feedback notes, or project details into the prompt box, using concise bullet points or free-form text. Hit ‘generate’ to let AI craft initial items.

Step 3: Review the AI generated retrospective board

Check the AI-generated AI 4Ls retrospective board within the Creately editor, verifying each category and adjusting content, shape sizes, and layout to reflect your specific sprint or project context.

Step 4: Customize the retrospective

Customize shapes, colors, and text labels to align with your team’s terminology or branding, ensuring the AI 4Ls retrospective template mirrors familiar visual conventions for clarity. Use AI clustering tools to group similar items and surface meaningful patterns across the Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed for sections, making insights immediately apparent.

Step 5: Invite collaborators

Invite teammates to comment directly on items, cast votes, and participate asynchronously through secure sharing links, facilitating equal input regardless of time zones.

Export the finalized AI 4Ls retrospective template board as PDF, PNG, Excel, or present it live using Creately’s slide feature, ensuring stakeholders can review outcomes in their preferred format.

Best Practices for Your 4Ls Retrospective

Follow these best practices to optimize your AI 4Ls retrospective sessions:

Do's

Involve cross-functional stakeholders for diverse insights, aligning product, design, and operations perspectives.
Timebox each L category to maintain focused insights and prevent discussions from drifting.
Cluster similar items visually on the infinite canvas to uncover patterns and reduce redundant notes before finalizing insights.
Assign action owners after voting to ensure accountability.
Regularly schedule follow-up sessions to review progress on agreed next steps in planning cycles.

Don'ts

Don’t let discussion drift.
Don’t overload categories with too many entries—limit each point to a clear observation or need for actionable improvement.

Data Sources for Your 4Ls Retro

Prepare these sources for your AI 4Ls retrospective:

Sprint metrics and velocity reports provide quantitative context on team performance.
Team feedback notes and previous retrospective logs offer qualitative insights for theme detection.
Customer satisfaction scores and ticket summaries highlight user pain points for the ‘Longed for’ category.
Project timelines, deliverable lists, and bug backlogs align insights with actual milestones and challenges.

Having these inputs ready streamlines AI-driven insights and reduces setup time. Ensure data privacy compliance when collecting these resources.

Real-World 4Ls Retrospective Examples

Software Development Sprint

For a software development sprint, the team can apply the AI 4Ls retrospective template to categorize feedback. Under the Lacked section, AI clustering can identify recurring bugs and dependency bottlenecks. By prioritizing these issues, developers can fix root causes, reducing defect rates in the subsequent release. The infinite canvas can enable real-time commenting and voting, accelerating decision-making and alignment across remote engineers, project managers, and analysts.

HR Team Health Check

For an HR team health check, leaders can leverage the AI 4Ls retrospective template to collect employee comments on workload balance, recognition, and career development longings. The AI can autocategorize dozens of open-ended survey responses into the Longed for section. HR can then visualize clusters to identify top requests—mentorship programs and flexible schedules. These insights have the potential to drive a pilot wellness initiative, boosting engagement scores and enhancing retention.

Marketing Campaign Review

A marketing team can apply the AI 4Ls retrospective template in a sprint review to log campaign metrics and audience feedback. Within the Liked column, AI clustering can surface top-performing channels and messaging. The team can then group these successes visually and export the board as presentation slides. They can then replicate high-ROI tactics in follow-up efforts, boosting conversion rates and shortening time-to-launch.

Ready to Start Your 4Ls Retrospective?

Jumpstart your next sprint retrospective by generating and editing your AI 4Ls retrospective template in seconds. Collaborate on the infinite canvas with built-in version history and export options. Invite team members instantly for async feedback, voting, and comments, then export results as PDF, PNG, or Excel.

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FAQs about 4Ls Retrospectives

What is a 4Ls retrospective?

A 4Ls retrospective is a structured feedback technique that leverages artificial intelligence to automatically categorize team feedback into four quadrants (Liked, Learned, Lacked, and Longed) based on your input. It then presents this analysis using a visual board for faster team alignment and actionable insights.

What are the advantages of using AI for 4Ls retrospective?

Automated Analysis – AI can quickly process team feedback, and categorize responses. No manual sorting required.
Real-Time Insights – AI-powered retrospectives provide instant data visualization, helping teams recognize trends and areas needing improvement without delay.
Unbiased Perspective – Unlike human facilitators, AI evaluates feedback objectively, preventing cognitive biases from influencing results.
Increased Engagement – AI-driven retrospectives can be interactive, ensuring every team member's input is considered and making the process more engaging.

Why is prep needed for a 4Ls retrospective?

You need to provide the AI with context for accurate suggestions and clustering. Information such as sprint metrics, velocity data, team feedback notes, previous retrospective logs, customer satisfaction scores, support ticket summaries, and project timelines need to be collected.

Can I tailor the 4Ls retrospective to my industry?

Yes. The template is fully editable. Change section titles, shapes, and labels to match industry terminology. AI tools can detect domain-specific keywords, letting you group or rename categories for software, HR, marketing, or various contexts.

Take Your 4Ls Retrospectives to the Next Level

With AI 4Ls retrospective, teams accelerate insight generation, reduce meeting time, and drive continuous improvement. Creately’s infinite canvas and built- in version history ensure seamless collaboration across remote, hybrid, and co-located teams. Auto-clustering and real-time voting surface key themes faster, while customizable visuals align with your brand and workflow. Experience faster retrospectives, richer data insights, and clear action plans. Open the AI 4Ls retrospective template now for free today to transform team reflections.