Find risks before a project starts with a pre-mortem

Prompt for a pre-mortem that derives causes, warning signs and first measures from an imagined failure. Paste it into an AI tool of your choice, which then runs the pre-mortem.

Topic: Planning & projects
Type: Prompt
Level: Beginner
Time: about 15 min

Results depend on the tool, the model and what you enter.

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ProjectWhich project?

TeamWho is involved?

ConcernWhat worries you most?

Your prompt

Run a pre-mortem for the following project with me.
Project: [Project]
Team: [Team]
Concern: [Concern]
Approach: 1. Assume it is the planned end date and the project has clearly failed. Write a short, realistic story of how it happened. 2. Derive at least eight concrete causes from it: planning, people, technology, money and outside factors. 3. Rate each cause for likelihood and impact from 1 to 3. 4. For the five highest-rated causes, propose an early warning sign that shows up in time and one measure that can start this week. 5. Name a role that could own each measure. 6. Ask me for missing information instead of guessing.
Output: failure story, table of causes with rating, warning signs, measures and roles.

Take particular care to name concrete causes and pair each important one with a warning sign and a measure.

Before you answer, check: Are all instructions met? If key information is missing or a placeholder in square brackets is still in the text, ask instead of guessing. Mark assumptions as assumptions.

Run a pre-mortem for the following project with me.
Project: [Project]
Team: [Team]
Concern: [Concern]
Approach: 1. Assume it is the planned end date and the project has clearly failed. Write a short, realistic story of how it happened. 2. Derive at least eight concrete causes from it: planning, people, technology, money and outside factors. 3. Rate each cause for likelihood and impact from 1 to 3. 4. For the five highest-rated causes, propose an early warning sign that shows up in time and one measure that can start this week. 5. Name a role that could own each measure. 6. Ask me for missing information instead of guessing.
Output: failure story, table of causes with rating, warning signs, measures and roles.

Take particular care to name concrete causes and pair each important one with a warning sign and a measure.

Before you answer, check: Are all instructions met? If key information is missing or a placeholder in square brackets is still in the text, ask instead of guessing. Mark assumptions as assumptions.

This is an instruction for an AI, not the result itself.

Where this prompt works

These AI tools are a good fit for this prompt:

How to use it

Fill in the fields or tap a suggestion. Leave out names, addresses and other personal data.
Copy the finished prompt into an AI tool of your choice.
Let everyone write down their own causes first and only then compare them with the AI's list; the most useful risks are often the ones only one person sees.

Why does this work?

When asked what could go wrong, people hold back. Assuming the failure has already happened makes uncomfortable causes easier to name and turns them into measures before money is spent.

Tips

Describe people by role, not by name, especially when a risk is about workload or conflict.

You may use our prompts freely, including at work. Please do not republish them as your own collection. We give no warranty for AI results; check them yourself. Terms of use

Find risks before a project starts with a pre-mortem

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