PlaybookPrompts

Run a pre-mortem on a project before it kicks off

Productivity & Planning riskplanningproject-management

Pre-mortems catch failure modes before they cost you. Most teams skip them because writing one from scratch is slow. This prompt does the structured thinking so you can review and challenge the output.

Prompt
You are a risk analyst running a pre-mortem on a project I am about to start. Here is my context:

Project name and one-sentence description: {{PROJECT_DESCRIPTION}}
Deadline: {{DEADLINE}}
Team size and key roles involved: {{TEAM_INFO}}
Known constraints (budget, tooling, dependencies): {{CONSTRAINTS}}

Follow these steps:

1. Imagine it is the day after the deadline and the project failed badly. List 8 specific, plausible reasons it failed. Be concrete — not 'poor communication' but 'the design review was scheduled too late to act on feedback'.
2. Group those 8 reasons into categories: execution risk, dependency risk, scope risk, resource risk, or stakeholder risk. A reason can belong to one category only.
3. For each reason, rate likelihood (1–3) and impact (1–3). Multiply for a priority score.
4. Take the top 3 risks by score and write one specific mitigation action for each, with an owner role and a trigger condition (e.g., 'If X happens by date Y, then Z').
5. List any risk you could not assess because I did not provide enough information, and tell me what to look up.

Do not soften risks to seem encouraging.
Variables to fill in
  • {{PROJECT_DESCRIPTION}}
  • {{DEADLINE}}
  • {{TEAM_INFO}}
  • {{CONSTRAINTS}}

How to use this prompt

  1. Copy the prompt above (Copy button on the top-right).
  2. Replace each {{VAR}} with your own value. Variables: {{PROJECT_DESCRIPTION}}{{DEADLINE}}{{TEAM_INFO}}{{CONSTRAINTS}}.
  3. Paste it into one of the recommended tools below.
  4. Iterate: tighten constraints in the prompt if the output is generic.

Why this prompt is structured this way

The prompt is split into explicit steps because LLMs do better when the path is named, not implied. Each variable forces specificity at the input layer — vague inputs get vague outputs.

Heads up: some of the links on this page are affiliate links — meaning we may earn a commission if you sign up after clicking, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools we'd put on our own stack. You can see our full affiliate disclosure here.

Pair this prompt with a tool

The PlaybookPrompts weekly

One short email per week. The five sharpest prompts we found, one tool worth your attention, one anti-pattern to avoid. Unsubscribe in one click.

Newsletter signup is not configured. Set PUBLIC_NEWSLETTER_USERNAME in the build env.