Premortem
A short meeting in which the team assumes the project has already failed and each person writes down why, to uncover risks before starting.
What it’s for
It helps you say out loud what could fail once a plan is decided: imagining failure as a fact gives permission to say it.
Key elements
Failure as a fact
The question isn't what could go wrong, but why it went wrong.
Everyone writes alone
First in silence, so nobody gets carried along by what others say.
It ends in changes
The most worrying risks become adjustments to the plan.
How it’s done
Present the plan and announce that, months later, it failed.
Each person writes the reasons for the failure, and then they are read one by one.
Adjust the plan to prevent the most important risks.
Applications in design
When to use it
Before launching a project, a product, or a research plan, once there is a concrete proposal.
Avoid
Turning it into a session of complaints or blame.
Don’t fall for it
Listing risks isn't enough: decide who takes care of each one.
Connections
Authors and works
- 1989
Deborah J. Mitchell, J. Edward Russo and Nancy Pennington
Studied how explanations change when you imagine something has already happened; it is the idea the premortem builds on.
- 2007
Gary Klein
Proposed the premortem as a meeting at the start of a project in which the team imagines its failure and explains the causes.
Sources
Original sources
- Klein, G. (2007). Performing a project premortem. Harvard Business Review, 85(9), 18–19.
- Mitchell, D. J., Russo, J. E., & Pennington, N. (1989). Back to the future: Temporal perspective in the explanation of events. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 2(1), 25–38. View source: Mitchell, D. J., Russo, J. E., & Pennington, N. (1989)
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