Pre-Mortem Brainstorm
🎯 Project
Name: [Project Name]
Kickoff Date: [MM/DD/YYYY]
Owner: [Team or Person]
🚨 Prompt
Imagine it’s [6 months after launch / post-delivery], and the project has completely failed. What went wrong?
🧱 Risk Categories
⚠️ Brainstorm Table
✅ Next Steps
Review brainstormed risks with stakeholders
Prioritize top 3-5 risks
Assign owners to mitigation plans
Revisit during mid-sprint and post-mortem
By likelihood By impact By category All potentials
💭 Potential Failure
🏷️ Category
🎯 Impact
⚙️ Likelihood
✅ Mitigation Plan
🧍 Owner
e.g., Timeline slipped due to unclear scope Execution 🤯 High ❤️🩹 High Lock scope during sprint planning, weekly reviews PM
e.g., User adoption low post-launch Strategy 🤯 High 🔅 Medium Run usability tests before launch UX Lead
e.g., Compliance risk not flagged early External 😶🌫️ Medium 💚 Low Add legal review to checklist Ops
Table Board
Category
Examples
Strategy Wrong audience, unclear goals, market fit off
Execution Timeline slips, tech debt, missed dependencies
Communication Misalignment, unclear ownership, lack of updates
Team Lack of expertise, turnover, bandwidth constraints
External Competitive threats, legal/compliance issues, market shifts
