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

Transcript

1. The project pre-mortem Harnessing prospective hindsight for healthier projects. @tomprior

   UX Camp Brighton 2016

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

3. A project autopsy Everyone benefits except the patient.

4. Bias and blame Post-mortems that turn sour.

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

6. None

7. Gary Klein

8. “..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/

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

10. How it works Exploring failure at the beginning of a

    project, not the end.

11. Gather your team Set aside time (min 1 hour), space,

    post-its and pens. Everyone involved in the project should attend (even the client).

12. 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.

13. Imagine complete disaster Visualise the worst possible outcome. Your app

    bombed. Your design didn’t convert. Your workshop flopped.

14. Generate reasons for failure Why did you fail so spectacularly?

    A post-it per reason. The more imaginative the better.

15. Find the themes Invite each person to present their reasons

    for failure. Find familiar failures and group them.
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17. Prioritise showstoppers Debate or dot-vote the must-avoid disasters. Discard problems

    you have no control over.
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19. Brainstorm solutions Develop plausible ways to mitigate the priority failures.

20. Agree next steps Create executable next steps to put your

    solutions in place. Delegate tasks and schedule a follow-up.

21. 1. Imagine complete disaster 2. Generate reasons for failure 3.

    Find the themes 4. Prioritise the showstoppers 5. Brainstorm solutions 6. Agree next steps

22. Ongoing course correction Use retrospectives to facilitate continuous improvement.

23. • 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

24. Thanks @tomprior UX Camp Brighton 2016