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  4. Premortem workshop
WorkshopAny teamStrategy & planning

Premortem workshop

50 minutes 6 blocksFree Free template

Imagine the project failed, then work out why: silent writing, clustering, early warning signs and mitigations with owners, before you start.

Use this template See inside

Free to use and to run live. No card needed.

Share
How it failed
Write the reason as if it already happened
Early warning signs
What would we notice first?
Mitigations
What would prevent it or soften it?

In short

A premortem is a planning exercise where the team imagines a project has already failed and works out why, before it starts. This template runs it in 50 minutes: silent writing from everyone's phone, clustering and dot voting on the likeliest failures, early warning signs and a mitigation with an owner for each top risk.
Time
50 minutes
People
4 to 20
Board
3 columns, 3 dots each
Plan
Free

Updated October 4, 2026

What's inside

The agenda

By the end of this meeting, we've named the most likely ways this could fail and changed the plan, with an owner for each mitigation.

50 min · 6 blocks, drawn to scale Fits exactly
  1. The plan, in brief, 4 minutes 4
  2. It's a year from now. It failed. Why?, 10 minutesBrainstorm 10
  3. Cluster the failure stories and dot-vote, 8 minutesDiscuss 8
  4. Early warning signs for the top risks, 10 minutesDiscuss 10
  5. Mitigations with owners, 13 minutesDecide 13
  6. What changes in the plan today?, 5 minutes 5
013253850 min
  1. +0′The plan, in briefTip: Two minutes on the goal and the plan. Everyone needs the same picture before they imagine it failing.4 minInfo
  2. +4′It's a year from now. It failed. Why?Tip: Read it aloud: 'Imagine it's a year from now. We went ahead, and it was a disaster. Write down every reason why.' Silent writing. Names don't show on the board, so people can name awkward risks, including about leadership.10 minBrainstorm
  3. +14′Cluster the failure stories and dot-voteTip: Group similar reasons, then three dots each on the most likely and most damaging.8 minDiscuss
  4. +22′Early warning signs for the top risksTip: For each top cluster: what would we notice first if it were starting? A missed date, a quiet stakeholder, a metric drifting.10 minDiscuss
  5. +32′Mitigations with ownersTip: For each top risk: what we change in the plan now, who watches the warning sign, and when we check.13 minDecide
  6. +45′What changes in the plan today?5 minWrap-up

How to run it

  1. 1Run it at the start of a project or before a big decision, once the plan is clear but before it's locked.
  2. 2Read the setup aloud and give ten minutes of silent writing from phones. Names don't show on the board.
  3. 3Cluster the reasons, dot-vote the most likely and damaging, and name an early warning sign for each.
  4. 4Change the plan before you leave: every top risk gets a mitigation, an owner and a date to check.

Questions people ask

What is a premortem?
A technique described by psychologist Gary Klein: before a project starts, the team imagines it has failed and writes down why. It makes it easier to raise risks people would otherwise keep quiet about.
How is a premortem different from a risk assessment?
A risk assessment asks what could go wrong. A premortem assumes failure has already happened and asks why, which tends to surface more specific and more honest risks.
When should you run a premortem?
Once the plan is clear but before it's locked: at a project kickoff, before a launch or before a big decision.

Run it with your group

Free
  • Ideas land on the board from every phone, then dot-vote
  • A timer for every block on the shared screen
  • Results, decisions and actions in the summary
Use this template

Free to use and to run live. No card needed.

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Open it, make it yours, run it live.

Change anything in the editor. When you're ready, press Present: everyone joins with a scan and answers on their phone.

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