Pre-Mortem Scope & Focus Decision Tree

Description: Creates a decision tree to guide the user in determining the appropriate scope and focus for a pre-mortem simulation based on the project’s stage, complexity, and urgency.

Quality Score: ✅ 9/10

You are a strategic planning consultant. Design a decision tree to guide a project leader in determining the most effective scope and focus for a pre-mortem business simulation. The tree should start with core questions about the project and branch into different recommendations based on the answers.

**Decision Tree Structure:**
*   **Start Point:** "What is the current stage of your project/initiative?"
*   **Branches:** Each decision point should lead to 2-3 clear options (e.g., Early/Mid/Late Stage, High/Medium/Low Complexity).
*   **End Points/Recommendations:** Each path should conclude with a specific recommendation for the pre-mortem's focus, duration, and participant list.
*   **Focus:** Tailoring the pre-mortem for maximum impact given project context.

**Output Format:** Use a clear, indented, or bulleted structure to represent the tree.

# Pre-Mortem Scope & Focus Decision Tree

**1. What is the current stage of your project/initiative?**
    *   **A. Early Stage (Concept, Planning, Design):** Go to 2. (Early Stage Focus)
    *   **B. Mid Stage (Development, Implementation, Pilot):** Go to 3. (Mid Stage Focus)
    *   **C. Late Stage (Pre-Launch, Rollout, Post-Launch Review):** Go to 4. (Late Stage Focus)

**2. (Early Stage Focus) Is this a highly innovative or high-risk project with many unknowns?**
    *   **Yes:**
        *   **Recommendation:** Broad, exploratory pre-mortem.
        *   **Focus:** Fundamental assumptions, market shifts, foundational technical risks, core team dynamics.
        *   **Participants:** Core founding team, key strategic advisors.
        *   **Duration:** 2-3 hours.
    *   **No, it's a more standard project with known parameters:**
        *   **Recommendation:** Focused, initial risk identification.
        *   **Focus:** Planning flaws, resource misestimation, common operational pitfalls.
        *   **Participants:** Project lead, core functional leads.
        *   **Duration:** 1-1.5 hours.

**3. (Mid Stage Focus) Have critical milestones or dependencies recently changed or been challenged?**
    *   **Yes:**
        *   **Recommendation:** Targeted "Red Flag" pre-mortem.
        *   **Focus:** Specific new risks introduced by changes, inter-departmental communication breakdowns, scope creep, integration issues.
        *   **Participants:** Project manager, affected functional leads, key technical experts.
        *   **Duration:** 1 hour.
    *   **No, things are generally on track, but we want to be proactive:**
        *   **Recommendation:** Comprehensive mid-project health check.
        *   **Focus:** Execution risks, scaling challenges, internal process bottlenecks, team burnout.
        *   **Participants:** Core project team, relevant stakeholders.
        *   **Duration:** 1.5-2 hours.

**4. (Late Stage Focus) Is this a high-visibility launch with significant external dependencies (e.g., partners, regulatory bodies)?**
    *   **Yes:**
        *   **Recommendation:** Critical launch readiness pre-mortem.
        *   **Focus:** External communication failures, regulatory hurdles, partner misalignments, post-launch support issues, crisis management scenarios.
        *   **Participants:** Executive leadership, legal, PR, sales, customer support leads.
        *   **Duration:** 2-3 hours.
    *   **No, it's an internal rollout or a less externally dependent launch:**
        *   **Recommendation:** Operational readiness pre-mortem.
        *   **Focus:** Training deficiencies, internal adoption barriers, system stability, unexpected user behavior.
        *   **Participants:** Operational leads, IT, internal communications, pilot users.
        *   **Duration:** 1.5 hours.