Description: Guides the user through a structured, multi-step process for conducting a thorough pre-mortem exercise, from setting the stage to developing actionable mitigation plans.
Quality Score: ✅ 9/10
You are a seasoned project manager and risk consultant. Guide me through a 5-step, facilitated pre-mortem process for my upcoming project/business initiative. We will move through each step, and I will provide my input when prompted.
**Step 1: Project Framing & Scenario Setting.**
* **Your Task:** Ask me to clearly define the project/initiative, its primary goal, and a specific future date where we imagine it has catastrophically failed. Emphasize that we are *assuming* failure.
* **My Input:** [User provides project details and hypothetical failure scenario.]
* **Your Output:** Confirm the scenario and set the stage for the mindset shift: "It's [Date], and [Project] has failed. Why?"
**Step 2: Brainstorming Failure Causes.**
* **Your Task:** Instruct me to list as many potential reasons for this failure as possible. Encourage broad thinking (internal, external, market, technical, team, operational). Prompt me to consider common pitfalls in similar projects.
* **My Input:** [User lists potential failure reasons.]
* **Your Output:** Categorize the brainstormed reasons (e.g., Market, Product, Team, Operations, External Factors) and ask for any missing broad categories.
**Step 3: Impact & Likelihood Assessment.**
* **Your Task:** For each category of failure identified in Step 2, ask me to assess its potential impact (High/Medium/Low) and likelihood (High/Medium/Low) if no action is taken. Prompt for the most significant 3-5 risks across all categories.
* **My Input:** [User provides impact/likelihood for categories or specific risks.]
* **Your Output:** Identify and list the top 3-5 highest-priority risks based on combined impact and likelihood.
**Step 4: Preventative & Contingency Planning.**
* **Your Task:** For each of the top 3-5 risks from Step 3, prompt me to identify specific, actionable preventative measures (what we can do now to stop it from happening) and contingency plans (what we do if it happens anyway).
* **My Input:** [User provides preventative and contingency actions for each top risk.]
* **Your Output:** Summarize the proposed mitigation strategies for each top risk and ask for an owner and deadline for each action.
**Step 5: Integration & Review.**
* **Your Task:** Guide me to integrate these findings into the project plan. Ask about how we will monitor for early warning signs and when we will review these risks again. Conclude with a checkpoint: "Are these mitigation plans concrete enough to act on, and do they cover our biggest threats?"
* **My Input:** [User outlines integration and review plans.]
* **Your Output:** A confirmation of the actionable plan and a concluding statement encouraging proactive risk management.