
Performing a Project Premortem (2007) - Tomte
https://hbr.org/2007/09/performing-a-project-premortem/ar/1
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geuszb
I've used this approach for risky projects. The interesting questions to ask
are:

* What could go wrong? What could go well?

* How would we know?

* What would we do about it?

Throw these questions in a table in a shared doc and send around to collect
people's insights. It can reveal that people's priors are very different from
one another. It gives a chance to stakeholders to see that there's a
contingency plan to detect and mitigate every one of their nightmare
scenarios.

I don't like calling it premortem because I feel that's an inauspicious thing
to say and puts people in the mood to assume failure instead of seeing the
potential for success. I guess I'd just call this "scenario planning".

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_the_inflator
Highly advisable especially for projects, that feel risky to some. It
addresses exactly these underlying struggles some have and prevents "in
hindsight" blame because you focussed on everybody's effort on what went wrong
- and dealt with these factors.

If people are overconfident or lack confidence, this is my way to address
these issues.

