Original 4 questions retrospective template
These four questions come from Norm Kerth's 2001 book Project Retrospectives. The last one, what still puzzles us, catches the problems nobody has an answer for yet.
Try it free
Free to start. Your team joins with a link.
When to use it
- Teams that want a well-tried, plain format
- Project reviews and post-mortems
- Facilitators new to running retros
The columns
What did we do well?
What went well that we should remember?
For example
- Shipping behind a feature flag
- Asking support early
What did we learn?
What did this teach us?
For example
- The vendor API has rate limits we did not plan for
- Estimates for data work are always low
What should we do differently?
What would we change next time?
For example
- Write the migration plan before the code
- Bring QA into planning
What still puzzles us?
What do we still not understand?
For example
- Why the nightly job fails on Mondays
- Who decides priority between the two roadmaps
Facilitator tip
Turn the puzzles into actions to investigate, with a name on each. They are easy to forget otherwise.
Other formats
- Three Horizons retrospective
- Three Little Pigs retrospective
- 4Ls retrospective: Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For
- Anchors and Engines retrospective
- Drop, Add, Keep, Improve retrospective
- Lean Coffee retrospective
- Mad, Sad, Glad retrospective
- Mountain Climber retrospective
- Sailboat retrospective
- Starfish retrospective
- Start, Stop, Continue retrospective
- SWOT retrospective
- What Went Well retrospective
- Genie in a Bottle retrospective
- Curse, Blessing, Quest retrospective