Say it like this
- What were the key learnings?
- Let's share our learnings with the mobile team.
- One big learning is to test on real devices earlier.
Use it at work
In a retro
- What were our key learnings?
- One learning for me is to ask questions earlier.
After an incident
- Let's capture the learnings in the post-mortem.
- Key learning: we need better alerts.
Sharing across teams
- Happy to share our learnings from the migration.
- Here are three learnings other teams can reuse.
Don't say this
At work, learnings is plural when it means specific lessons.
Don't mix it up
| Term | What it is | Who writes or uses it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| learnings | lessons from experience | tech and business teams | retros and reports |
| takeaways | key points to remember | everyone | summaries of talks and meetings |
| lessons learned | the traditional phrase | formal reports, project management | formal documents |
Practice
Try it
4 quick exercises
1. You are leading a retro. How do you ask what the team learned?
2. After the outage, we wrote up the key _______ and shared them with all teams.
3. Which sentence uses learnings correctly?
4. Rewrite using learnings: 'What did we learn from the failed launch?'
Say it out loud
Phrase 1 of 3
"What were the key learnings?"
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More about learnings
Real examples(3)
- in a retrospective
"Our main learning is that we need clearer acceptance criteria."
- in a post-mortem
"Key learnings: add alerts for queue depth and practise failover."
- after an A/B test
"The test didn't win, but the learnings will shape the next version."
More mistakes(2)
Handle with care. Some readers find learnings too corporate. In formal writing, lessons learned is a safe choice.
- ✕Learnings (in a formal report for an academic audience)✓Lessons learned
Some readers find learnings too corporate.
- ✕I did a learning of Python.✓I learned Python.
Learnings are insights from experience, not courses or skills.
Other forms(2)
- a learning singular
"One learning is to test earlier."
- lessons learned related
"The report includes a lessons learned section."
Often used with(3)
- key learnings · the most important lessons
- share learnings · tell other teams what you found
- capture learnings · write down lessons for later
Similar words(3)
- lessons learned · more traditional
- takeaways · key points to remember
- insights · more data-focused
Opposites(2)
- repeated mistakes
- assumptions
Questions(4)
- What does learnings mean at work?
- The lessons or insights a team gets from a project, test or mistake.
- Is 'learnings' correct English?
- Yes. It is common in business and tech, though some people prefer "lessons" or "takeaways".
- What is the difference between learnings and takeaways?
- Learnings come from experience. Takeaways are key points from any source, like a talk or a meeting.
- Is it learning or learnings?
- "Learnings" (plural) for specific lessons. "Learning" (uncountable) for the general activity of learning.
