DAKI (Drop, Add, Keep, Improve)
Tell the practices worth fixing apart from the ones worth dropping.
Drop, Add, Keep, Improve. Splitting the big swings from the tweaks means a practice that's merely slow doesn't get thrown out alongside one that's genuinely broken.
Reach for it when
- Keep the big swings (Drop, Add) apart from the tweaks (Keep, Improve)
- Say what's working before you start rearranging everything
- Get more room than Start/Stop/Continue gives you without a five-column board
Pick something else when
- The session is short and four columns will eat it
- The team is new to retrospectives and needs somewhere simpler to start
- The problem is how people are feeling, not which practices to change
The board
What your team sees during Collect. Everyone writes on their own device, and nobody sees anyone else's Notes until the stage closes.
Drop
Things to stop entirely
Add
Things worth trying
Keep
Working. Leave it alone
Improve
Works, but could work better
How the session runs
The facilitator moves the room from one part to the next, so nobody has to remember what comes after what.
Collect Notes
Add your notes. Everyone writes at once.
Read-out
Everyone reads their own notes aloud, one at a time
Group Similar Notes
Pull related notes into the same pile
Vote on Topics
Pick what the group should spend its time on
Agree on Actions
Decide which practices to drop, add, keep or improve, and who owns each action
Session Summary
Check what came out of the session and export it
Prompts that open it up
The facilitator can drop any of these into the room when it goes quiet.
Run DAKI (Drop, Add, Keep, Improve) with your team
Share a six-digit session code. Everyone joins from their own screen, and nobody needs an account to take part.