The Premortem.

A premortem is a strategic exercise where a team imagines a future project has failed, then works backward to determine why — enabling them to identify risks and prevent failures before they occur.

This exercise breaks groupthink, reduces overconfidence, and surfaces hidden worries — all before the project launches, so there is time to adapt and avoid foreseeable pitfalls.

How this tool works

1. 01
   Imagine the project has already failed. Not 'might fail' — has failed. Specific, vivid, real.
2. 02
   Working backward from that failure, surface every reason it could have gone wrong. The premortem prompts you through the categories most teams miss.
3. 03
   Get a structured set of risks, hidden worries, and the early signals to watch for — ready to bring back to your team or sit with on your own.

Opens in a new tab. The tool itself runs as a published Claude artifact.