Post-Mortem
Use this template to reflect on project breakdowns, identify systemic issues, and improve future planning.
📃 Project Summary
Briefly explain what this project aimed to do, and why it didn’t succeed.
Example: We launched a new feature set, but the outcome didn’t meet user expectations or timelines. Let’s explore what went wrong.
🧩 Failure Reasons
Create multiple database views (e.g., Impact view, Likelihood view) to prioritize risks during retrospectives or pre-mortems.
📌 Tips for Using This Template
Use this both as a post-mortem tool and as a pre-mortem planning method (i.e., "what could go wrong").
Bring this into your regular team rituals like project kickoffs or end-of-sprint reviews.
Encourage team-wide participation in rating likelihoods and reversibility to gain alignment.
You can customize the columns as needed:
Impact: High / Medium / Low
Likelihood: Very likely / Likely / Somewhat likely / Not likely
Recovery effort: Easy fix / Medium fix / Hard fix
Impact view Table
💥 Reason
📊 Impact
🎲 Likelihood
🔁 Recovery Effort
Landing page crashed on launch ❤️🔥 High 🚫 Not likely 👌🏻 Medium fix
Missed launch deadline 🔅 Medium 🤔 Somewhat likely 🩸 Hard fix
Project went over budget 🔅 Medium 🚫 Not likely 👌🏻 Medium fix
Stakeholders changed mid-project ❤️🔥 High 😶 Likely 🩸 Hard fix
Poor early user research 🔅 Medium 😶 Likely 👌🏻 Medium fix
Team capacity underestimated ❤️🔥 High 🫨 Very likely 🙌🏻 Easy fix
