Pre-Mortem

Assume the project has already failed. Work backward to find out why.

Workflow

1. Gather context — Read the project description, plan, or doc the user provides. If a vault path is given, read it. If the user describes the project verbally, capture the key facts.

2. Generate failure scenarios — Imagine it is 6 months from now and the project has failed catastrophically. Generate 8-12 distinct failure causes across these categories:

   • Technical — architecture gaps, scaling limits, dependency risks, security holes
   • Execution — timeline, staffing, skill gaps, coordination failures
   • Market/External — competition, regulation, user adoption, economic shifts
   • Organizational — stakeholder alignment, funding, priority shifts, team morale

3. Score each cause — For each failure cause, assign:

   • Likelihood (1-5): How probable is this failure mode?
   • Impact (1-5): If it happens, how severe is the damage?
   • Risk Score = Likelihood × Impact (1-25)