What if you could see the future?
A project postmortem or sprint retrospective helps us reflect on what didn’t go as planned and how we can handle situations differently in the future, while a premortem helps us envision what might go wrong so we can take preventative action. Premortems are valuable tools that can help mitigate conflict or failure ahead of time and build resilience within your team.
“Plans are useless but planning is indispensable.”
As valuable as they are, premortems aren’t something every team runs. In product development, we spend so much time planning or thinking about planning, that making time for another type of planning activity can seem redundant. Additionally challenging is that a premortem asks you to assume a negative outcome, which stakeholders and participants may feel is pessimistic and will dissuade the group from pursuing the effort. Premortems surface issues before they become issues, making your other planning efforts more productive, and inviting your team to fully invest in the positive outcomes of the effort through the realization that conflict and failure can be avoided through collaboration.
There are several great resources and templates available for running premortems (see below) so I’ll focus on how you can ensure your team gets the most out of your premortem:
Involve key stakeholders early
Organizing a premortem is a great opportunity to flex your ability to influence without authority. Once you’ve identified who will participate in the premortem, reach out to the managers, directors, and/or VPs, that comprise your key stakeholders to let them know about the premortem and what everyone will get out of the activity. Gain this buy-in early so that senior members of your organization are not surprised you’re asking people to imagine a project might fail and so that they understand the value a premortem offers.
Designate a moderator and create a timed agenda
Ahead of the premortem, find a moderator who will keep the session moving along. Work with the moderator to craft a timed agenda, ensuring the group has a healthy amount of time for discussion. It can be tempting to deep dive into mitigation tactics so a moderator needs to direct the conversation toward the goal of the premortem. If you’ll be acting as moderator, be sure to acknowledge that with the group so your role and responsibilities are clear to everyone participating.
Example agenda (8 people, plus 1 moderator)
10:03am (late start) Introduction & Premortem Overview
10:10am Project/Problem Overview
10:12am Individual Brainstorming (What went wrong)
10:20am Postmortem Review (~10 minutes per person; group similar reasons into themes as they are discussed)
11:40am Break & Lunch
1:00pm Review Themes (Rank themes by most likely to impact the effort)
1:30pm Mitigation Assignments
1:50pm Review Next Steps & Timeline
Share materials and background with the participants
Because premortems aren’t as common as postmortems or sprint retrospectives, give participants the opportunity to prep. Share your template (if you’re using one), explain how the session will be structured, provide background on why you’re organizing the premortem, and, most importantly, highlight what participants can expect to get out of the premortem.
Take a break
It’s often difficult to find time to conduct a premortem in a single day and that’s ok. Ensuring there is a break between brainstorming what might go wrong and shifting into mitigation assignments will help the group realign and focus. I’ve conducted premortems over two days, sometimes split across two weeks, and with portions happening asynchronously (provided participants can view & comment on others contributions to the premortem activities). However you structure your premortem, keep that break between brainstorming reasons for failure and assigning mitigation assignments so that participants can mentally adjust to the next task in the premortem process.
Align on next steps and schedule follow-ups
Some premortem guides suggest brainstorming mitigation tactics during the session, but I have always found it more valuable to focus on assigning mitigation ownership during the session. That gives participants a chance to think about the reasons for failure and research different tactics to avoid or decrease the likelihood of failure. Additionally, participants can volunteer to focus on mitigating a concern they feel passionately about, developing a sense of ownership for the problem. Regardless of whether you take time during or after the premortem to work on mitigation tactics, ensure you select dates for each of the mitigation tactics so everyone — including your stakeholders — are aware of the timelines for follow-up meetings, tasks, and decisions.
One of the clearest benefits of premortems often comes during a postmortem, when participants wonder aloud, “why didn’t we see this coming?” Ahead of that question being asked in your next meeting, make time before you get started on your next big thing to organize a premortem to surface what you can’t always see coming, unless you make an effort — through a premortem — to peer into the future.
Resources
There are lots of resources available to help you run your first premortem; below are a few I have shared with stakeholders and participants.
Harvard Business Review, “Performing a project pre-mortem”
Atlassian, “Team playbook” premortem”
UserVoice, “13 Questions to ask in a product pre-mortem”
If you’re planning to organize a premortem, these templates will provide plenty of inspiration, whether you’ll be using sticky notes in a conference room or conducting the premortem asynchronously across several time zones:
