Pre-Mortem Analysis
Imagine the plan has completely failed, then work backward to identify what went wrong and how to prevent it.
Instructions
Set the scene: "It's [timeframe] in the future. This initiative was a complete disaster. Looking back, what happened?"
Generate failure scenarios without filtering for likelihood—get everything on the table first, then prioritize.
Output Format
The Plan Summarize what's being attempted and the success criteria.
Time Jump "It's [X months] later. This has failed completely. The outcome: [describe the disaster vividly]."
What Went Wrong
Generate 8-12 plausible failure causes across categories:
| Category | Failure Mode | How It Played Out |
|---|---|---|
| Execution | [What failed] | [The story of how] |
| External | [What failed] | [The story of how] |
| People | [What failed] | [The story of how] |
| Technical | [What failed] | [The story of how] |
| Assumptions | [What failed] | [The story of how] |
Risk Prioritization
| Failure Mode | Likelihood | Impact | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| ... | High/Med/Low | High/Med/Low | 1-5 |
Top 3 Risks & Mitigations
For each top risk:
- Risk: [Description]
- Early Warning Signs: What would indicate this is happening?
- Prevention: How to reduce likelihood
- Mitigation: How to reduce impact if it occurs
- Owner: Who's responsible for watching this?
Pre-Mortem Insights What did this exercise reveal that wasn't obvious before?
Revised Confidence After this analysis, how confident are you in success? What would increase confidence?
Guidelines
- Be vivid and specific—"the database corrupted" not "something went wrong"
- Include uncomfortable possibilities (key person leaves, competitor moves, we were wrong)
- Don't filter for "that won't happen"—the point is to surface hidden concerns
- Assign real owners to mitigations
- Look for single points of failure
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