Pre-mortem meeting
Prevent future threats by running a pre-mortem meeting with your team.
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Pre-mortem details
Meeting driver: type @...
Meeting date and time:
8/18/2023, 2:00 PM
Set timer for 0010minutes
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10Start Timer -
Start Timer
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End time:
Thursday 12:00 AM
Step 1: Meeting kickoff & prompt
10 mins
Click when you’re ready to begin → 
Imagine we’re 3 months in the future and this project has failed spectacularly. What caused the failure? This exercise will help us identify and prevent those threats before they happen. We’ll classify potential failures into three categories:
Ready to get started? Head to step 2 👇 .
Step 2: Quietly brainstorm threats.
10 mins
Everyone quietly brainstorms threats in the table below. Each person should add at least 2 tigers, and as many paper tigers and elephants as needed. Leave the switch off so only your own ideas are shown.
I’m done brainstorming 
Threat
Show everyone’s ideas
Author
Threat
Type
Search
Author
Threat
Type
Upvote
Notes
Worried we haven’t tested all the edge cases on mobile app
🐯 Paper Tiger
1
Open
Might be some PR backlash on new face recognition software.
🐘 Elephant
3
Open
Photo tagging involves manual work for quality team.
🐅 Tiger
1
Open
Ops team will have to change their processes
🐅 Tiger
5
Open
Consumers might not be used to new form factor of computer.
🐘 Elephant
2
Open
Floppy disks are too easy to bend. Customers might complain.
🐯 Paper Tiger
2
Open
There are no rows in this table
Step 3: Quiet voting & group discussion.
10 mins voting, 20 mins discussion.
Flip the switch above to show everyone’s ideas. Then, quietly read and vote on the threats you think are most important. Limit 5 votes per person to focus the discussion. Finally, go around the room, each person sharing which threat(s) resonated most. Take notes as you go.
I’m done voting
Step 4: Draft an action plan
10 mins
Meeting driver: Group the biggest threats into themes, propose mitigating actions, and assign an owner to ensure the mitigations happen. Then share the action plan with your team.
Add theme
Theme
Related threats
Proposed Mitigating Actions
Owner
Privacy
Worried we haven’t tested all the edge cases on mobile app
Might be some PR backlash on new face recognition software.
Operations
Ops team will have to change their processes
Photo tagging involves manual work for quality team.
Customers
Floppy disks are too easy to bend. Customers might complain.
Consumers might not be used to new form factor of computer.
There are no rows in this table
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