A four-column continuous improvement format — Drop, Add, Keep, Improve — that combines Start/Stop/Continue simplicity with actionable improvement granularity.
Drag example cards between columns or try voting to explore the format.
What should the team stop doing? Activities, meetings, or processes that create waste.
Weekly status email — duplicated in standup and Slack
Estimation poker for tickets under 3 points
Cross-team sync meeting that could be a Slack message
What new practices or tools should the team adopt? Innovation and new capabilities.
Automated performance regression tests in CI
Monthly tech debt reduction sprint
Shared on-call rotation document
What's working well that should become a team standard? Reinforce and document.
Daily standup — 15 min, focused, on time
Bi-weekly demos — stakeholders love them
What existing processes need refinement? Make good practices better.
Code review turnaround — aim for same-day feedback
Sprint planning — add capacity for unexpected work
Deploy process — add automated rollback
Use these prompts and example cards to start a focused conversation.
What should the team stop doing? Activities, meetings, or processes that create waste.
Example cards
Keep in mind: Don't suggest dropping something without discussing the replacement
What new practices or tools should the team adopt? Innovation and new capabilities.
Example cards
Keep in mind: Don't propose adds without considering the time cost
What's working well that should become a team standard? Reinforce and document.
Example cards
Keep in mind: Don't treat Keep as filler — it's where team culture is defined
What existing processes need refinement? Make good practices better.
Example cards
Keep in mind: Don't confuse Improve with Drop — improvement is refinement, not elimination
DAKI takes about 20–30 min. Here's the flow.
Explain the four columns. Emphasize that Improve is about making existing processes better, not replacing them.
Team adds cards to all four columns. Encourage at least two per column.
Group related cards and vote. Drop and Improve often generate the most discussion.
Discuss top items in each column. Spend extra time on Improve — it's the most nuanced column.
Pick 1-2 items from Drop and 2-3 from Improve. Assign owners and deadlines.
The DAKI retrospective — Drop, Add, Keep, Improve — is a powerful evolution of the classic Start/Stop/Continue format. By adding an explicit Improve column, DAKI creates space for incremental refinement of existing practices rather than the binary start/stop decision.
DAKI emerged from the Continuous Improvement movement in software engineering, where teams recognized that many processes don't need to be started or stopped — they need to be improved. A daily standup doesn't need to be dropped, but it could be improved. Code review doesn't need to be started from scratch, but the existing process could be improved. This nuance is what makes DAKI more sophisticated than simpler formats.
The psychological framework of DAKI is based on Kaizen — the Japanese philosophy of continuous, incremental improvement. The Drop column represents waste elimination (Muda in Lean terminology). The Add column represents innovation and new capabilities. The Keep column represents standardization — identifying what's working that should become a team norm. The Improve column represents Kaizen itself — the ongoing refinement that drives team excellence.
If you like DAKI, you might also enjoy these formats.
A classic three-column retro format that helps teams identify new practices to adopt, unhelpful habits to drop, and winning behaviors to reinforce.
A structured four-column retro format — Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For — that balances positive reinforcement with honest improvement areas.
A metaphorical retro format where the team is a sailboat — Anchors hold you back, Wind pushes you forward, and Rocks are risks to navigate around.
A forward-looking retrospective format that helps goal-oriented teams reflect on progress, identify blockers, and plan the next sprint like climbing a mountain.
DAKI stands for Drop, Add, Keep, Improve. It's a four-column retrospective format that combines Start/Stop/Continue simplicity with granular improvement tracking.
DAKI splits Start into Add, and adds Improve for refining existing practices. It's better for mature teams that need granularity beyond binary start/stop decisions.
20–30 minutes. The four columns need more time than Start/Stop/Continue but produce more actionable output.
Yes — LetRetro's async DAKI board lets team members contribute to all four columns asynchronously, with real-time discussion for top-voted items.
Every team has something to improve. If the team can't find any improvement items, it may be stuck in a comfort zone — consider switching to Sailboat or 4Ls for fresh perspective.
LetRetro's AI identifies patterns in Drop items (recurring waste), tracks Add completion rates, and generates improvement trend reports across sprints.
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