Pre-Mortem Planner

Step 1 — The project

What are we stress-testing?

Name the project or plan you want to protect, and the date it's supposed to succeed by.

Project name Target date — when should this have succeeded? One or two sentences on what success looks like

Step 2 — The failure story

It failed. Here's why.

Imagine the target date has passed and the project is dead. Be brutally honest — optimism is not allowed in this step. Answer these in your story:

• What went wrong first?
• What warning signs did everyone ignore?
• What finally killed it?

The story of the failure (past tense, as if it already happened):

Step 3 — The causes

What caused the failure?

Pull the distinct causes out of your story. List at least 3 — one per line of thinking. Be specific: "we ran out of money" beats "things went badly."

+ Add cause

Step 4 — Prevention

Turn each cause into a plan

For every imagined cause of failure, write one preventive action, name an owner, and set a deadline (before your target date). A cause without an owner is a wish.

Your pre-mortem mitigation plan