DAKI retrospective template
Drop, Add, Keep, Improve — decisive, and short.
Also known as: DAKI retrospective, Drop Add Keep Improve.
DAKI is the format for a team that needs to leave the room with decisions. Every column is already a verb, and "improve" gives people somewhere to put the things that are nearly right — which is what stops the drop column from collecting cards that should really have been fixed instead.
The columns, and what goes in each
- Drop
- What should we stop doing entirely, starting now?
- Add
- What should we introduce that we do not do today?
- Keep
- What is working and should be protected?
- Improve
- What is worth keeping but needs to be better?
When to use the DAKI retrospective
- Short retrospectives where you have forty minutes and need output
- Reviewing tooling, process, or ceremonies with a bias toward acting
- Teams that find purely reflective formats frustrating
How to run a DAKI retrospective
- Write silently for five minutes.
- Read Drop first and challenge each card: is this genuinely worthless, or does it belong in Improve?
- Vote once across the whole board.
- Assign an owner to every Drop and Add card that survives the vote.
Run this retrospective in RetroCanvas
DAKI is built in — pick it when you create a board, or set it to recur automatically every sprint. Free, with no credit card required.