Imagine failure first to surface guardrails and feature mitigations.
The 'pre-mortem' skill is a strategic tool designed to help teams identify potential risks and failure points early in the planning process. By imagining failure scenarios, teams can proactively surface risks and implement preventive measures, which saves significant time and rework during project execution. The skill guides teams through a structured approach to assess the potential obstacles across various domains like technology, UX, organizational issues, market factors, and compliance constraints. This forward-thinking approach ensures that initiatives are thoroughly vetted for potential pitfalls, which increases the likelihood of success and reduces unforeseen setbacks.
The 'pre-mortem' skill helps teams identify and mitigate risks early in the planning process, preventing potential failures from derailing projects and saving time on rework.
You use this skill during the planning phase of initiatives. It helps define success criteria, identify failure modes, and propose mitigations, ensuring that potential risks are addressed proactively.
You need to provide the initiative and horizon (30/90/180 days), success definition, and known risks or compliance constraints to effectively use the skill.
Yes, the 'pre-mortem' skill pairs well with other tools like '/collaboration:concept-forge' for sanity-checking top concepts, and it can also feed guardrails into '/dev:code-review' or security-related skills.
The 'pre-mortem' skill relies on the inputs you provide and may not fully account for unexpected risks or changes in project scope. It is primarily a proactive planning tool and doesn't address ongoing project execution.
Quick Setup:
.claude/skills/Repository
NickCrew/claude-cortex