{"id":"lead-premortem-five-failures","audience":"product-managers","category":"leadership-work","track":"leadership","level":"intermediate","technique":"grounding","title":"Run a pre-mortem that names owners and early warnings","free":false,"task":"Before the self-checkout launch, run a pre-mortem: imagine it's 3 months after launch and it failed. List exactly 5 numbered failure reasons, each on one line with three labels: Failure:, Early warning:, Owner:. Base every reason on a risk in the planning notes, and use only owners named there. Keep it under 220 words.","materialLabel":"Launch planning notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"Self-checkout kiosks - launch planning notes (launch Mar 3, 12 stores)\n\nTeam: Nadia (PM), Owen (engineering lead), Grace (store ops), Victor (payments), Elle (support lead)\n\nOpen risks people raised:\n- Owen: barcode scanner firmware v2.1 fails on crinkled produce bags in testing, about 1 in 15 scans.\n- Grace: store staff training is only one 20-minute video. Two store managers said their staff won't watch it.\n- Elle: support has no script for \"kiosk charged me twice\" calls yet.\n- Grace: weekend peak at the Elm St store is 3x weekday traffic; we only tested on weekdays.\n- Nadia: shrink (theft) targets are not agreed with Loss Prevention. LP hasn't replied in 3 weeks.\n\nFootnote from Victor (payments), added Friday: the card reader's PCI certification renewal is due Feb 20. If it slips, we legally can't take cards on the kiosks.\n\nThings going well: kiosk hardware arrived early, design reviews done.","rules":[{"type":"numberedItems","count":5},{"type":"maxWords","max":220}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Generic failure reasons","why":"The AI lists textbook risks like 'poor user adoption' instead of the ones in your notes.","fix":"Add: \"Base every reason on a risk in the notes.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Missing the footnote","why":"The AI skims and misses the PCI renewal added at the bottom.","fix":"Say: \"Include the PCI certification renewal due Feb 20.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"No owner or vague owners","why":"The AI assigns 'the team' or invents roles.","fix":"Add: \"Owner must be a person named in the notes.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Loose format","why":"The AI writes paragraphs per risk, so you can't scan it.","fix":"Show it: \"1. Failure: ... | Early warning: ... | Owner: ...\" and ask for exactly 5.","checks":["r0","numberedItems"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each part instead: \"each line under 15 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Frames it as a pre-mortem","patterns":["failed","pre-?mortem","3 months after"]},{"label":"Fixes the count","patterns":["\\b(5|five)\\b"]},{"label":"Asks for the labels","patterns":["early warning","owner"]},{"label":"Stays in the notes","patterns":["only.{0,20}notes","from the notes","named"]},{"label":"Sets a word limit","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words"]}],"hint":"A pre-mortem is only useful if it is about your project. Tell the AI the count, the labels on each line, and that every risk and owner must come from the notes.","rubricLabels":["Every numbered line has all three labels in order: Failure:, Early warning:, Owner:","Each owner is one of Nadia, Owen, Grace, Victor or Elle, matched to the risk they raised (for example, scanner firmware is Owen's, the PCI certification is Victor's)","One of the 5 reasons is the card reader's PCI certification renewal due Feb 20 slipping"]}