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

Transcript

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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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   None
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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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    None
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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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    None
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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