Most kickoffs are optimism theater. Everyone nods at the plan, nobody says the thing they are actually worried about, and the first real conversation about failure happens four months later when it is expensive.
A pre-mortem fixes the framing. You do not ask what could go wrong, because that produces a polite list. You say: it is twelve months from now and this program failed. Why? Past tense gives people permission, and the answers get specific fast.
What's inside
Silent writing first
Everyone writes their failures alone before anyone speaks. Do it out loud first and the most senior voice in the room anchors everyone else.
Likelihood times severity
Score both 1 to 5 and the sheet computes the product, coloring anything at 15 or higher. The room then argues about the top three instead of all twenty.
An owner on every serious row
Any row scoring 15 or higher with an empty owner turns red. That rule is the whole discipline: a failure nobody owns is the one that comes true.
How to use it
- Book 60 minutes at kickoff, before the plan feels settled.
- Frame it in past tense: the program failed, why? Then 10 minutes of silent individual writing.
- Cluster the failures, score likelihood and severity together, and sort by the computed score.
- Take the top three only. Assign a named owner and a date to each, then put the sheet where the team will see it again.
When you outgrow the free version
The full Pre-Mortem Tool ($39) adds the facilitation guide and the 60-minute agenda. The pre-mortem predicts the failure and the Post-Mortem Tool ($39) audits the prediction, which is the actual loop: the free post-mortem template is the other half. Both together in the Pre/Post-Mortem Pair ($49), or take all 17 tools for $99.
Questions PMs ask
Is this really free?
Yes. Email in, file out, unsubscribe anytime. No card, no trial.
Premortem or pre-mortem?
Both spellings are common and they mean the same thing: a structured session at kickoff where the team imagines the program has already failed and works backwards to the causes. This template works for either spelling of the meeting.
What if the sponsor thinks this is negative?
It happens, and it is the main reason pre-mortems get skipped. The framing that works: this is not a prediction, it is insurance. We are spending an hour now so we are not spending a quarter later. If a sponsor reads imagined failure as disloyalty, that is worth knowing about the program too.
What does the $39 Pre-Mortem Tool add?
The facilitation guide: the minute-by-minute 60-minute agenda, the clustering method, and the scripts for the awkward moments. The free file is the worksheet; the paid one teaches you to run the room.