The Project Pre-Mortem: Harnessing prospective hindsight for healthier projects.

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The project pre-mortem Harnessing prospective hindsight for healthier projects. @tomprior UX Camp Brighton 2016

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The post-mortem Dissecting successes and failures after the event.

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A project autopsy Everyone benefits except the patient.

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Bias and blame Post-mortems that turn sour.

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An alternative The pre-mortem; a failure-focused thought experiment.

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Gary Klein

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“..prospective hindsight - imagining that an event has already occurred - increases the ability to correctly identify reasons for future outcomes by 30 %” Gary, Klein - Harvard Business Review, September 2007 https://hbr.org/2007/09/performing-a-project-premortem/

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In the future, you failed Fire up your time machine.

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How it works Exploring failure at the beginning of a project, not the end.

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Gather your team Set aside time (min 1 hour), space, post-its and pens. Everyone involved in the project should attend (even the client).

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Frame the scenario What are you about to embark on that’s going to fail spectacularly? A plan or design challenge you’re about to execute.

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Imagine complete disaster Visualise the worst possible outcome. Your app bombed. Your design didn’t convert. Your workshop flopped.

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Generate reasons for failure Why did you fail so spectacularly? A post-it per reason. The more imaginative the better.

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Find the themes Invite each person to present their reasons for failure. Find familiar failures and group them.

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Prioritise showstoppers Debate or dot-vote the must-avoid disasters. Discard problems you have no control over.

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Brainstorm solutions Develop plausible ways to mitigate the priority failures.

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Agree next steps Create executable next steps to put your solutions in place. Delegate tasks and schedule a follow-up.

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1. Imagine complete disaster 2. Generate reasons for failure 3. Find the themes 4. Prioritise the showstoppers 5. Brainstorm solutions 6. Agree next steps

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Ongoing course correction Use retrospectives to facilitate continuous improvement.

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• Improves the odds of success. • Encourages teamwork. • Practices divergent and convergent thinking. • A win for the team, before the project has started. • Creates a positive forum for expressing concerns. Bonus benefits

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Thanks @tomprior UX Camp Brighton 2016