We launched a new website! We got reflective. We learned a lot! And we share a favorite framework.

THE 4LS: A PRIMER

The 4Ls is one of our favorite retrospective exercises. It’s a chance for collaborators to reflect on a recent project, using four prompts to guide their thinking: What We Liked, Learned, Lacked and Longed For. Because we are the way we are, we’ve adapted it to better suit our needs. Our four L’s are: Liked, Learned, Longed For and Let Go Of. This framework rules.

We’ll come back to the 4Ls in a moment, but first, some cool news: We launched our new website last week.

Pretty good stuff right? My goodness, we worked hard on it. It’s been a process! A real growth opportunity. There were moments of ecstatic jubilation! Somewhere between a few to many late nights. At one point we all needed to take a walk real bad.

But we did it! We shipped it, we celebrated it and then we took a moment to reflect on it. Because introspection invites clarity, and retrospection builds perspective. Know what we love? Clarity and perspective.

Let’s get into it.

4Ls on Launching

WE LIKED

dedicated moments for reflection + active listening
co-creating our shared POV, voice + visual language
case studies that feel fresh + full of care
learning + growing through so many firsts

WE LONGED FOR

more patience with the process, ourselves + each other
more time, always more time
trust that we’ll get it done—we always do
making peace with what is “enough” for now

WE LET GO OF

adhering to conventions that don’t serve us
the need to get it perfect before seeking feedback
scarcity thinking, e.g. there’s not enough time to pause
shying away from healthy friction

WE LEARNED

the work shapes the process, i.e. the path is made by walking
quality > quantity always
our mental health is critical to our creative health
anticipate delays

By the time we’d finished the exercise, we were hooting and hollering, marveling, yet again, at how aligned we are, even in those inevitable moments when we feel alone and lost in the weeds.

It’s in those moments we most need each other. We long for affirmation, curiosity, acknowledgement and purpose. When we turn toward each other, we tend to find it.

May the new season and the work ahead offer you compassionate collaborators, abundant patience, opportunities to experiment and ample reminders that you are—just like the rest of us—a work in progress.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, again and again.

— Marge Piercy, To be of use

Our Labor of Love: A Retrospective on Launch